-Matthew 13:31
One day while I was at work, I was talking with my mentor about the project I was working on. At that time I had been assigned a project to work on independently, meaning I would be the lead test engineer on the project. I was talking to my mentor about how much pressure I was feeling because of the tight schedule and the demands of being the lead test engineer. I don't remember all of what he said, but something he said to me stuck out to me: "you have to treat these projects as a marathon, not a sprint."
These words stuck out to me because they relate to my key verse for 2017, written above. I am the kind of person who likes to get things done as fast as possible so that I don't feel that I'm wasting time. This often causes me to burn out and spend a lot of time recovering from working so hard. I also tend to make a lot of mistakes because I try doing things too quickly. I once went to a McDonald's drive through to get a meal, and before they could give me my drink, I drove away. I was in such a rush to get to the next thing I had to do that I neglected getting the drink that I paid for, which made me a little upset.
If there's one thing that working full time has taught me, it is that you have to learn to pace yourself. I spent almost 12 hours a day at work for a week and pulled two all-nighters in order to finish the project on time. After the project was finished, I was completely burned out. It took me about a week to recover from the long hours and hard work that I had put into the project. I should have taken the advice of my mentor and treated the project as a marathon, not as a sprint.
If you have ever gone running, you know that there is a big difference between a sprint and a marathon. A sprint is simply running as fast as you can in order to reach a destination in a short amount of time. As a result of the high intensity, you quickly run out of energy so you cannot run very far. In contrast, a marathon is running at a measured pace in order to reach a destination that is far away. A marathon requires good pacing, or you will end up running out of energy before you finish the race.
I personally am not a big fan of running, but I think it is a very good analogy to life. We often want things to happen quickly, so we neglect our personal well-being in exchange for faster results. We expect that by trying our hardest and working fast, we can produce the same results as someone who has put many hours into something. This is even true in our spiritual walk. We think that we can grow our faith by attending a conference or praying many hours in one week. However, this simply isn't true. The only way to truly grow our faith is to spend time everyday and to be consistent. Consistency is more important than speed in our walk with God.
As I thought about this topic, I asked myself "what is the most practical way to apply this concept to my life?" I almost immediately thought of the proverb "if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." In other words, the best way to be consistent in our walk with God is to surround ourselves with other people that will go with us. This has been somewhat of a struggle for me because I like to do many things in life by myself. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishing things quickly on my own, but I am realizing that this compromises my consistency. I'm praying to surround myself with others who can help me be more consistent in the marathon of life- are you?
-Smart
