08 - Lifting the Invisible Weights
When we think of muscles, most of the time, we think of the physical body. This year I discovered a bootcamp class taking place in my area through an amazing fitness instructor. I am also stepping back into lifting weights again. I have tended to be off and on when it comes to fitness. I do several weeks strong and then I typically fall off the band wagon for like three months and there goes my cycle off and on.
As I am stepping back on the band wagon of fitness to lift weights again, I am also stepping into developing my writing muscles again through this writing challenge you’ve been reading through on my website. The challenge is - 109 blog entries - one a day until December 31st.
So yes, physical muscles and writing muscles are important to develop, but there is also a muscle of persistence that carries a weight all its own, and if there’s one thing I have something to say about, it’s persistence.
Persistence is one of those muscles that isn’t always fun to develop, but once you get in there and start building it, you’ll find it serves you in so many other areas of life.
Think of the last “thing” you persisted through.
-What did you learn from it?
-What did it teach you?
-What life lessons from that experience did you carry into the future?
I like to ask questions like this whenever I go through something challenging. I hate for anything to ever be a waste, especially pain. My mindset is, ‘come hell or high water’ - I will not leave this painful experience with nothing to show for it. I WILL learn something. I WILL not let it have the best of me, without taking something from it that serves me.
Probably like you, there are so many things I’ve persisted through in life that I wish hadn’t taken so long. I may not ever get the answer as to why certain long standing prayers I’ve prayed took forever to see fruition or why some have not been answered in a way I can see just yet.
These “why” questions, I have learned for my own mental sanity, to lay delicately on the shelf of my life. They remain in the background, and I try not to pick them back up, though sometimes I fail in that, reaching back to grab them back down again. It’s almost always a fruitless effort, so I put them back again, and embrace the art of trusting God even when it’s hard.
Trust is a muscle too.
Persistence and trust.
Two seemingly different actions, yet complimentary.
If I go all in on persistence and no trust in God, I burn out. In this scenario I’m ‘nose to the grindstone’, but from a place of believing that if I don’t take action, nothing will happen,. I operate from a place of believing that God is sitting back just watching, making things happen for other people, while remaining apathetic and emotionally removed from me. I see Him as not intervening to open doors of opportunity or bestow favor. He’s wildly involved in other people’s success, but far removed from gracing me with any answers or blessings in regard to my persistence. At least that’s my perception when I’m in the thick of it, persisting, but struggling to trust.
If I trust with no persistence I land in disillusionment land. I think I just need to trust, since in my previous scenario, all the persistence burned me out and I think that maybe I just need to trust more and leave more of it to Him. I then get lost in disillusionment when nothing happens.
As you can tell, I’ve gotten lost in this wild loop quite a few times.
I’d love to tell you the magic formula is a simple combination of persistence and trust, but there are no guarantees in life. There is no magic formula of exact ingredients that will exactly spit out a result. Even with the best of efforts, we may not see the results we would hope for. That’s not to say we shouldn’t persist and trust God. We should do both of those things with excellence.
Below are ways that I pair persistence and trust together with these additional nuanced perspectives.
I learn to let go of the outcome. If I have a desire or dream, I persistently walk it out, but I hold loosely the results I desperately want. I can’t guarantee the results will happen when I want them to or that they’ll look like I want them too. So I work and hold them loosely.
I learn to enjoy the journey. The journey is so much longer than whatever the end result I am trying for, so if I don’t enjoy the journey, then I don’t enjoy the bulk of my life.
Both of these lessons have been hard fought and hard won. I say them with the blood, sweat, tears, and the muscles of a seasoned warrior.
I’m imagining you as a warrior as well. You’ve had your own blood, sweat, tears, muscles, and I’m sure more that have marked your life.
So if this writing finds you in the messy middle of persistence and trust, know that you find yourself in good company. I think a good chunk of people would tell you they relate.
I’m going to encourage you to do something I encourage myself to do often when I am persisting through difficulty and trying to trust God in the process. Let go of the outcome to the Lord, and enjoy the life He’s given you to the best of your ability.
From our deepest valley to the crest of the mountain top — God is as good in one as He is in the other, even if that may feel so hard to believe in the moment you’re walking through.
Keep moving, friend. You’re not alone. <3