After Mastering Life came out, I received a letter from a business leader in Texas, who wrote: “Sometimes we get into ruts that drain us of our energy and our desire to do or be what God wants… As life got busy I became disorganized, which caused me to lose focus. I’ve always been one who had a clean desk, a list I followed until each project was done, prioritizing my list, etc. But over the past few years I lost that somewhere in the hustle and bustle of life. Your book made me aware of why I was slowly losing my joy. I used to always have my study time with the Lord everyday before daylight, offering the day to Him to use me where He wanted, praying for His wisdom. But that became crowded out and my days became more disorganized. I’ve been frustrated and couldn’t figure out why. The frustration made my thoughts turn negative. I saw it, and I know those around me saw it as well. Then God laid your book into my hands and put me on an extended airplane trip with no computer, no phone, just Him and me. It was an answer to prayer. I’ve implemented several of the techniques and am working on the rest. Oh, and one last thing. As we were landing on the second leg of our trip I had read through the sixth pattern and was visiting with a gentleman next to me. He had noticed my taking notes and being dedicated to what I was reading. So I asked him about his spiritual life, and he claimed to be a believer but not active in church or in his relationship with the Lord. After giving him my brief testimony about letting Jesus become the Master of my life I gave him my book in hope that he would read it and make Jesus his Master. Then I had to go out and buy another book so I could finish it.”
Another letter came in, this one from a pastor, who wrote: “I am a pastor of a small church and it has seemed like at every turn the devil is discouraging me. I had decided earlier today that I was on the verge of leaving the ministry because I was so weary and battle worn. I had been reading your book and decided to finish it before going to bed. The last few chapters were an oasis for my discouraged soul. I felt the Lord speaking through your words to me. For the first time in a while I am looking forward to tomorrow knowing that Jesus will be there for me.”
I was very encouraged by those letters, but the biblical material is from the Lord and all the credit goes to Him.
The Ninth Mastering Life Principle is Practice the Power of Plodding
Not plotting, but plodding. I don’t know if people use that word nowadays. If we do, it might be in a negative way, like describing the old rundown horse that just plods lifelessly down the road. That’s not what I mean.
The word “plod” comes from an Old English term meaning “puddle.” A plodder is someone willing to get his feet wet and willing to wade through the mud and mire so as to arrive at his destination. It’s someone who keeps on going.
Now, I hate to get in the mud. I did a little hiking some time ago, and at one point I got into a marshy place and my feet sunk into the mud, and it oozed into my shoes. But what can you do? You have to pull your foot out and keep going forward, looking for firmer ground. That’s what it means to plod.
Those people who know the power of plodding don’t easily give up. They tackle life day-by-day and moment-by-moment and task-by-task until the job is done.
As I researched this theme in the Bible, I found it everywhere. The Bible talks a lot about perseverance and standing firm and enduring and faithfulness. But there were three phrases that jumped out at me. The first phrase was about not giving up.
- 2 Chronicles 15:7: But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.
- Luke 18:1: Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
- Galatians 6:9 says: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
There is another set of verses in the Bible that tells us not to lose heart.
- Isaiah 7:4 says: Be careful, keep calm, and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart….
- Hebrews 12:3 says: Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 says: Therefore since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
- 2 Corinthians 4:16: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Another set of verses tells us to press on.
- Hosea 6:3 says: Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
- Luke 13:21-33 says: At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to Him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach My goal.’ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem.
- Philippians 3:12-14: Bot that I have already…arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
There are a lot of other verses along these lines, but let me give you two implications of this line of teaching.
First, we shouldn’t give up or lose heart when things are tough. I’m convinced we live in a world in which people give up too easily. We give up on our jobs, on our goals, on our marriages. We run into a muddy patch of discouragement and instead of plodding through until we get to firmer ground on the other side, we just give up. We can’t give up so easily. Life calls for perseverance and for a determination to keep on going.
Second, we shouldn’t give up or lose heart when things seem small. We all love to do big things and big things are exciting. But most of what we do is small and, without the Lord’s touch, it would seem insignificant. But we do have the Lord’s touch; and His touch turns the small things into substantial things.
Let me tell you something that happened to me a few years ago. I had a phone call that asked me to come and speak to a group of about 7,000 people. I looked at my calendar and realized I could not do it. I had a commitment to a group of about 150 people. This group of 150 people had asked me well over a year ago to come and speak to their group. What should I do? Cancel my appointment to take the larger one? Of course not. It’s very possible that my speaking to the 150 will do more in the long run for the kingdom of the Lord than speaking to the 7,000. Success in our work for Christ—whatever it is—isn’t determined by size but by service. It’s a matter of faithfulness.
The Bible tells us to never despise the day of small things. Don’t give up when your work seems small. Don’t lose heart. Press on. And trust the Lord to use you beyond anything you can imagine.
Many years ago there was a Scottish boy named Samuel Smiles who was too high-spirited to be a good schoolchild, causing his teacher to tell him that he would never be fit for anything but sweeping the streets. But Smiles had one quality that served him well. He could persevere. He wanted to improve himself. As he went through life he thought a lot and read a lot and applied himself. He studied medicine, worked for a political newspaper, managed a railroad, and wrote manuscripts. In all these things, he applied himself. He decided to write a book about it, and he called it Self Help. Samuel Smiles submitted his book to a publisher, but it was rejected. He later published it himself in 1859, and it became a sensation. A few years later it was republished and the word Perseverance was added to the title. It was called Self Help; With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance. This book on self-help and perseverance became the precursor of all the books that have been published since on the subject of self-improvement. Even though it’s 150 years old, it is still worth reading today. Let me give you a few sentences from Self Help / Perseverance by Samuel Smiles:
“It may be of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed from without, whilst everything depends upon how he governs himself from within…. The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, with its cares, necessities, and duties, affords ample opportunity for acquiring experience of the best kind; and its most beaten paths provide the true worker with abundant scope for effort and room for self-improvement. The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful…. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.”
Practice the power of plodding, and whatever you do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord and not as unto men.
It helps a lot to remember there are two of you. This comes from a conversation that occurred long ago between two famous Christians of the Victorian era. You’ve often heard me quote various words from the London pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who is known in history as the “Prince of Preachers.” Spurgeon was one of the most prolific men who ever lived. One day the Scottish missionary, David Livingston, asked him, “How do you manage to do two men’s work in a single day?” Spurgeon had a simple reply: “You have forgotten that there are two of us.” He went on to explain that he had an unseen Partner, and this Partner was doing most of the work.
As we’ve seen, we’re assigned our work day by day and we accomplish our tasks one by one. We plod and persevere and sometimes appear to fail. But in God’s will, there is no failure. We are doing more good than we know. As Christ works through us by His Spirit, He has a way of turning our addition into multiplication and blessing our work in an exponential way.
Admiral William H. McRaven, a former commander of SEAL Team 3, is the ninth commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. In 2014, he delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas in Austin. He spoke to the 8000 graduates about the power of a multiplied influence, telling them, “If every one of you changed the lives of just ten people—just ten—then in five generations, 125 years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people. Eight Hundred million people—think of it: over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world—eight billion people.”
He spoke of what happens when one Army officer makes a decision that saves ten lives from an ambush. Not only are those soldiers saved, but their children yet unborn were also saved. And their children’s children were saved.
“Changing the world can happen anywhere,” he said, “and anyone can do it.”
Well, that’s especially true of us Christians. We might think we’re influencing people one by one and little by little; but God knows how to turn our addition into His multiplication, and His calculus is incalculable.
Consider the great revival that has occurred in our lifetime in China—millions upon millions of people are streaming into the Kingdom. Much of what’s happening is the byproduct of a few words by a fifteen-year-old girl, whose name we don’t know, and who probably never knew what she had wrought. It’s bound up in the story of John Sung, who was born in 1901 into a Methodist pastor’s family in China. As a boy, John helped his father in the ministry and earned the nickname the “Little Pastor.” But John’s main interests were intellectual, not spiritual. He was brilliant, always at the top of his class. As a young man he came to America in pursuit of degrees. He earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University, where you can still find his chemistry essays and research documents in the university library. He is reportedly the first Chinese national to earn a Ph.D. in America.
Along the way John got away from the Lord and lost his way in life. In the course of time, trying to regain his bearings, he enrolled in New York’s Union Theological Seminary, which espouses a very liberal theology. This was the modernist world of Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin and Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick. In this faithless environment, John Sung became so confused he no longer knew what he believed or why. He grew depressed and was unable to eat or sleep.
One day during the Christmas season a friend invited him to an evangelistic meeting where Dr. I. M. Haldeman, a brilliant New York City pastor, was scheduled to speak. Arriving at the meeting, John was disappointed to learn the program had changed. Dr. Haldeman wasn’t there. Instead a fifteen-year-old girl dressed in white and clasping a small Bible rose to say a few words. John lost interest in the meeting, but unable to exit gracefully, he stayed. The girl read a few verses about the power of the cross and gave a few words of testimony. That’s all; but that was enough. Her few sentences fell into John’s heart like seeds ready to burst into life. Shortly thereafter, John embraced Christ as his Lord and Savior and began sharing the news with everyone.
The administration of Union Theological Seminary, thinking him mad, committed him to an insane asylum. He spent six months there, read the Bible cover to cover forty times, and considered the asylum a better seminary than Union.
He was finally released on the condition he would return to China, and he arrived back in Shanghai in the fall 1927. He started preaching the moment he arrived, and over 100,00 people were saved during his ministry. He was called the “John Wesley of China.” He preached for fifteen years until he died at age 43 from tuberculosis, but he paved the way for the explosive growth that China is experiencing today.
How many lives are still being changed because of the simple words of a young white-clad girl through whom Jesus spoke?
This is the truth that keeps me going. It’s not a matter of what we are doing for Christ, but what He is doing through us that makes the difference. The apostle Paul said: I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
Our lives and our labor in Him are not in vain. We can live lives of productivity and we can fulfill the will of God for us. We can fulfill the truth of Psalm 139:16: You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book. It begins with a permanent, positive, personal decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Only by making Him the Master of our lives can we master life—before it’s too late.