Last week I came to pick up a boy so we could to some math practice. To get to his house, you had to walk up a lot of steps.

And I mean A LOT of steps!!!!

Because of this most people walked up them very slowly, and using a cross-cross fashion. This meant crossing from left to right, and then back the other way which puts less pressure on your legs.

Watching people climb those many steps reminded me of an important lesson….

Missions (and the Christian life) means taking your time.

The boy who lives in that house can run up the steps without a serious problem. But this is because he’s used to them! Most other people could try to run up those steps, but would fail miserably. They MAY succeed in running up them, but will exhaust themselves in the process.

In the same way ministry has lots of challenges. We can try to take each of those challenges at once, but it will lead to a breakdown.

Instead we must take our time

Taking our time means dealing with the challenges one at a time, and not worrying about speed, but effectiveness. Plodding (dealing with every challenge carefully) is always better than sprinting. Because those who sprint will always leave things either undone, or half done.

The old saying that “The Christian life is a marathon not a sprint” is absolutely true! God doesn’t calls us to be successful at all times, in fact we often won’t succeed. Instead God calls us to be FAITHFUL through each step of obedience. Those who are faithful receive His blessing and grace.

God’s calling can fill our hearts with fear and concern as we look at the many challenges that need to be conquered. But let us never forget the way to conquer those challenges is simply to take the first step