Faithful to Plod

Source: challies.com

It dawned on me the other day how many children's movies focus upon the theme of the average or ordinary becoming the extraordinary:

a mermaid grows legs to walk on dry land and marry a prince (The Little Mermaid)...
a snail becomes a souped-up race car driver (Turbo)...
a crop duster plane becomes a world-renown racer (Planes)...
       ...the list could go on and on.

I began to wonder...

where are the movies that show a faithful, ordinary person (or anthropomorphic animal) doing regular, mundane things, slowly making a profound and powerful impact over a long period time?

While doing flashy things like winning world titles or marrying into royalty can certainly be admired, what about the heroic stories for the majority of us who need the faith and inspiration to carry on without all the fanfare and glory?

I don't know about you, but I need the stories that speak to doing the slow, long, and often mundane work of keeping up a household, developing close friendships, building family traditions, and speaking into others' lives in ministry.

A slow pace is most unnatural in today's fast-paced, instant-gratification-seeking culture.

But we all know the best things in life take time.

By plodding through a chapter book, three or four pages at a time, my children have read over a dozen by the year's end.

By choosing to cut back on sugar and empty carbs, my husband and I have slimmed down a pants size or two, during the course of a few seasons.

I've heard it said like this: we need more lighthouses in this world, instead of shooting stars.

William Carey, missionary to India, is known to have said to his nephew, who was interested in writing his biography, "If the biographer gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly.  Anything beyond this will be too much.  I can plod.  I can persevere in any definite pursuit.  To this I owe everything."

So today, dear friend, I want to glory in the often overlooked and underappreciated quality of plodding.

Will you join me?

May we all plod along--being faithful to do the small--for our good and His glory.  May we be content doing these things for the audience of One, because so many of these things are only seen and known by the Lord.   May we be faithful in the small!

"It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay."  --J.R.R. Tolken, The Hobbit