Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Perseverance Can Make A Difference
SOMETIMES TROUBLES SERVE TO FUEL OUR FIRES, MAKE US DETERMINED
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins—not through strength but by perseverance.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4
Perseverance is tough. No, I mean it’s really a tough thing to hold onto. After all it’s much easier just to give up when the going gets tough. Just throw your hands in the air, turn around and walk away.
But if we all did that when life got tough imagine some of the wonders we’d miss.
When I was in high school I decided one year to watch the NBA Slam Dunk competition.
Guys were doing 360’s and power dunks left and right. All pretty impressive but nothing really worth repeating.
Then this guy named Michael Jordan got up to try. He ran all the way down the court, jumped up in the air and slammed the basketball. “Ok.” I thought to myself. “That was pretty boring.”
But the announcers went crazy and they started doing the replays over and over again. And to my amazement, Jordan dunked the ball by jumping at the Free throw line. Yes. The Free throw line.
I remember going to the court and looking at the free throw line and how far it was to the goal. I tried running and jumping and could barely get a few feet in the air, much less all the way to the goal.
On about the six or seventh try, it finally sunk in. I had witnessed something amazing.
Later on in life I learned that Jordan didn’t take up basketball until he was a junior in high school. That he was cut from the team when he was a sophomore. But being cut gave him a new sense of dedication to being better at basketball. A newfound perseverance that he didn’t have before.
I’m not saying that all of the troubles we go through in life are like being cut from a high school basketball team. But sometimes troubles serve to fuel our fires and make us determined to be better than what we were.