“We prefer mystery to mundanity. . . . We prefer our excellence fully formed. But there are no cheat codes when it comes to excellence.”- Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2018)
“But I will not drive them out in a year, because the land would become desolate and the animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”- Exodus 23:29-30 (NIV)
As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 5 of Gradually Then Suddenly, he observes how we tend to react when we encounter someone more successful than we are. We find it easier to assume they won the talent lottery or the luck lottery. Because then we feel better about maintaining the status quo.
In addition, Mark explains his love-hate relationship with the Scriptural phrase ‘little by little.’ Like most people, the author notes, he like nonstop flights. For the Israelites, their nonstop from Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken eleven days. But it turned into a forty-year flight. With forty-two stops known as the stations of the exodus.
Therefore, when one maps the children of Israel wandering around in the wilderness, it’s all over the map. Because they failed to learn what God wanted to teach them, they walked in circles. Thus, Mark adds:
“God loves us too much to graduate us to the next grade if He knows we’ll fail all over again. If you want the testimony, you have to pass the test. . . . Maturity . . . [is] doing the right things day in and day out. If you do that long enough, sooner or later you will possess the Promised Land. God delivers us little by little. God promotes us little by little. God grows us little by little.”
Today’s question: What most helps you to use no cheat codes for excellence? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Embodied repetition marks rituals”