Slow but steady wins the race

There is a story about an old donkey who can't work anymore because he is partly blind, very slow, and lost his strength. His owner decides to throw him into an empty water well. The donkey starts to talk to the owner. Why are you throwing me inside this well sir? Do you not care about me anymore? Stop talking! His owner says. The donkey keeps talking and soon the owner is so annoyed with the talking donkey that he decides to throw sand into the empty water well. At first, the donkey keeps talking to the owner. Hey, why are you doing this? Do you want to kill me? But after a while it gets quiet. The owner keeps throwing sand inside the well and soon a pair of ears appear above the well. Followed by the rest of the donkey. He walks out and into the open field. Free at last. The owner scratched behind his ears.

You see, with every scoop of sand falling on the donkey's head, he could easily die but instead of letting it cover him and bury him under, he stepped on the next scoop of sand until he got out of the well.

We have a cat, and she is very cute but she has a bad habit. She eats everything that is in front of her. She does not care if it comes from the table or the plate of my one-year-old. In the beginning, I was so annoyed by her stealing all of our food, even though we fed her well and she visited two other neighbors for both breakfast and lunch. So, I ended up trying to keep our kitchen very clean. Where I would normally not care as much, now every time I saw the cat, I would clean my kitchen. Where we would eat all over the house we now stay mostly in the kitchen to avoid having the cat eat our stuff. We still have three kids so it is never completely clean but I did get more disciplined in keeping our house clean.

Often we like to see results quickly. To see what we are doing things for. To gain a reward. Life with Jesus is different. The road is narrow and not many people go on it. We love to hear about the positive sides of the Gospel, healing, miracles, peace, and joy. Though they are wonderful and true. The one does not come without the other. Life with Jesus also includes, persecution, faith, discipline, longsuffering, dying to yourself and carrying your cross. The story of the donkey is an example of how we can have a different outlook on situations in life we wish were different. Instead of being a victim, we can take it as a stepping stone, a learning tool, a lesson needed to be learned and an oppurtunity. 

Because at the end of the day, God looks at our hearts and our character. The goal is that we become more and more like Him.

Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

We can get discouraged when other people try to put us down, say something mean or the circumstances don't look as we hoped for. Like with the donkey who worked for his owner all his life only to be thrown into a well and buried under sand. For a while there he felt sorry for himself but then he took it as an opportunity to walk towards freedom. I had to learn how not to take everything too personally, and how to please God rather than people. How to do the right thing even though I could not see any results at the time. How to walk the narrow path and not be blown away when storms come. It is still a learning process but the good thing is that it goes step by step. God knows us very well and is so kind to discipline us in very creative ways.

I know the example of the donkey and our cat are just silly ones. There are much bigger problems people have to deal with. But that is the beautiful part. God can use ordinary things, the silly things, the cat and the donkey to teach us a lesson. After all, we are running a marathon in life, not a sprint. That is why slow but steady wins the race. We can get speed once we know the path and have the discipline. Once you get good at something it comes with ease. If you are faithfull in the little things God can give you bigger things. 

For today I would like to pray a prayer with you:

Dear God, Thank you for this day. I am alive and well. You have started a good work in me and I thank you that You will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. Until that day and after I surrender myself to you. I believe you made me in your image, You died on the cross for my sins and was buried in the grave. After three days you rose again from the dead and now you are seated in Heaven. Forgive me my sins. Holy Spirit, I need Your help, fill me. Help me to take the discipline well so I can become more like you Jesus. Amen.