finifugal

Afraid of finishing anything? Afraid to wake up to yet another dreary day? Afraid of failure? Afraid of feelings, circumstances or stepping into something new? Afraid of obedience and leaving the security, safety and soundness of a space? Afraid of death itself? Why?

It is hard to face fears and have faith when you face disappointments. You play the mistakes you made like a skipping record that can’t find the grove to sing to. You feel disqualified, kicked off the team, no longer able to do the things you once were passionate about. You can’t see the ending.

But there is one! After death there is eternity. For believers, eternity starts the moment we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. For some it will be heaven and for others hell. Our hope is in Jesus who is faithful. Romans 5:3-4 tells us to press on.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he discusses the "10,000‐Hour Rule", and shares that the key to success in any field is a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. As an example, he brings up that The Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany alone over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, collected more than 10,000 hours of playing time and we can see that they are still a popular group to this day. Basically, practicing for 10,000 hours of anything would probably include failures, frustrations and possibly falling short of goals at times, but as the bible tells us, perseverance produces character, which produces hope.

As Christians, our hope is in Jesus! Reading scripture, praying, worshiping and pressing on in this life for those 10,000 hours will produce a connection with the creator of the universe. It’s key to success. Press on, good and faithful servant. It’s worth it!