Journal of Sacred Work

Today’s meditation is written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

     Perseverance is the ability to thrive under the weight of mediocrity and the seduction of the average and the ordinary. It is the ability to remain faithful for the duration. Great things of Love come out of small acts of faithfulness, acts born out of an unshakable confidence in the power of Love. How easy it is to miss the undeniable work of Love because we give up too soon. Perseverance is often the only thing that separates failure and success, and surely it contributes to the difference between the ordinary and what is extraordinary. The perseverance of wind and rain, for example, have crafted from what might otherwise have been ordinary rock an extraordinary sculpture (picture at left).

     This spring the robins in our neighborhood began a tenacious effort to build a nest directly over our neighbor’s front door. The idea of the mess that would likely occur was more than my neighbor could live with, and so he engaged in just as tenacious an effort to keep the nest from forming. Straw would appear only to be swept away by my neighbor with his broom. The dance between bird and man continued for days until finally the struggle between them seemed to end. It appeared that the gaunlet of life had been too much for the robin. I couldn’t help but imagine the heart of that bird as though my own, remembering days when good enough was good enough for those around me, when being above average was cause to celebrate, and when I felt saddened and defeated and tired as the ordinary swept away my hopes for more.

     But true perseverance is expressed best in courage and endurance. I was delighted to walk out one day last week to find a beautifully formed bird’s nest sitting on the side of my garage, just feet from my neighbor’s front door! Courage is not enacted out of the absence of fear; the broom might still be lurking near by. But, as author Erwin McManus writes "courage moves us to risk ourselves for others for a higher cause. Courage frees us from the fears that would rob us of life itself."

     In Greek mythology there is told the story of Sisyphus, a man condemned by the gods to push a large bolder up a hill, which would then roll to the bottom, requiring that he do it again and again, for eternity. For some this is an image of condemnation and futility; in my life Sisyphus is a representation of hope and perseverance. Much like Sisyphus I had watched a robin bring a piece of straw to its perch over and over again. Yet, for as many times as the nest was swept away, the bird persevered. Eventually a new strategy (build the nest somewhere else!) yielded success. This week my delight was transformed to joy when I discovered that the nest had been filled and now holds three young and very hungry new baby birds. The implications of perseverance and faithfulness cannot be overestimated and must never be underestimated.

     What sustains you in persevering? When your efforts are swept up by mediocrity or the ordinary, how do you begin again to live Love?