The Power of Just One More Time

Right now I am at the end of what has felt like a long two weeks on the road. (This is not about whining about business travel. I am very happy to have a job and the travel simply goes with the territory right now.) The days of meetings and talking with people all of the time have just plain worn me out. But the one constant has been climbing back on the treadmill every morning or evening for just a few miles. None of these runs over the last two weeks has been memorable--that same window shade is half up every day. None of these runs has been long or challenging in new ways. But these runs are bringing some sanity to my days on this trip and are building the foundation for better runs later. It would certainly be easier to stay in bed an extra hour or sit and watch TV at night, but since when has easier truly been better.

I am also struck by the connection to my time connecting with God and His word. Most days do not feel noteworthy in and of themselves. Most days are not grand epiphanies. Most days are a few minutes of praying and a few pages of reading. Yet those ordinary days seem to be what anchors my soul and what allows me to remember my God who is ever before me and beside me. Plus, I believe that these ordinary, humdrum days are what provides the foundation for those moments of particular insight or inspiration.

More and more I am content to persist through--and even enjoy--the unspectacular runs and devotional times. Not out of complacency, but (I hope) out of valuing the ordinary as a foundation for the extraordinary.

Sometimes victory is just pounding out the same 3.1 miles on the treadmill that I ran yesterday. Sometimes success is reading a few more pages in the middle of some long book of the Bible. Sometimes the greatest expression of power is just going at it--whatever your"it" may be--just one more time.

Pressing On,
-Ken