Stay the Course for the Long Haul

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children."

(Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV)

Most of life is slow. This is something I have had to make peace with in God's providence. I am also aware that this is probably an insight that comes with age. When you are young and single, and you see other older folks seemingly not all that concerned with earth-shattering epiphanies or rapid visible growth in their lives, you may think that something must be wrong with them. You may think that they have grown apathetic and tired over the course of time and just kind of "given up" on their dreams. I know I have thought that before.

But let me tell you why we older folks yawn at the accounts of your blazing speed and muscular progress. It's because we know the secret: most of life is slow — and it was meant to be. And very little in our lives will result from a sudden burst of energy or a brief season of enthusiasm.

You do not become a good farmer on the strength of a season or two of blazing speed and muscular progress. You become a good farmer on the strength of decades of plowing, sowing, and reaping — always in season and always concerned with the long haul. And the same truth applies to child-rearing, and business building, and marriage — and to keeping your soul.

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently." The Hebrew of the first clause is something like, "Watch out for yourself!" and the second clause is superlative: "guard your soul much!" or "diligently!" The idea is that there must be a care-filled, ongoing, intentional effort to keep your soul from walking away from the things your eyes have seen. Many Christians have great zeal when they start. Some of the most zealous starters were also some of the most spectacular flameouts. Why? Because keeping your soul diligently is a long haul calling. That is why you must keeeep your soul diligently. If you fail to keep your soul diligently, you will tend to watch your soul walk off into the world. And you will be one to forget the things your eyes have seen, and they will depart from your heart.

Let me be clear: God has not made our lives to be centered on such things. He has made our lives centered upon the regular rhythms of grace: the Lord's Day, morning and evening worship, daily prayer, daily Scripture reading, discipline, self-examination, and repentance. That is how you keep your souls: in the regular pattern of grace, in the long haul. And that is how God has made us to impart the things we have seen to our children, and to our children's children.

God speed you in staying the course for the long haul.

- Adam and the elders