Perseverance Zig Ziglar and Mark Batterson each tell the well-known story of the Chinese bamboo tree. The farmer will go out and plant the crop and take care of it all year. At the end of the first year no sign of growth shows. The next year the farmer continues to take care of it. At the end of the second year, still, nothing happens. The farmer continues taking care of the plants for five years without seeing any sign of growth. Then, in the fifth year, in a period of about six weeks, the plants grow about ninety feet high! The question with the lesson is “did the plants grow in the six weeks or in the five years?” Answer - five years. It can be this way in life. We start to learn a new endeavor and wonder “how long is this going to take?” Since things do take time, maybe the better question is, “what would allow me to do this without worrying about time?” Remember why you started. Whether one is discussing a relationship, job, or hobby, we can hopefully remember a time when we approached it with excitement, gratitude, and wonder. Then, sometimes, we get lost in the daily happenings. We forget why we started. Pursue the good. Do not forget the love you had at first and why you started.
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” -Revelation 2:4 NIV
