Overcoming, the hard way …

People who visit me as a clinical therapist haven’t shown up in my office because their troubles were short-lived and easy to overcome. For many of us, overcoming some of our most difficult trials in life takes a LONG time.

Could that be a primary reason why the Bible contains multiple exhortations for us to be persistent?

I’m a strong believer there are answers to the challenges we face in life, but working out those answers sometimes requires persistence on our part. In fact, whether we overcome some of our greatest challenges will sometimes come down to the single issue of whether we persist long enough!

There’s a very well-known story about a farmer who had given up on his donkey who had fallen into a well. The farmer wasn’t persistent, but the old donkey was …

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They each grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked down the well, and was astonished at what he saw. As every shovel of dirt hit his back, the donkey did something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed, as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off.

Our adversary, the devil, and others will often try to bury us in troubles. To persist is to shake off the dirt, and then step up. Do that enough times, and you will overcome!

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again …” Proverbs 24:16a.

Scotty