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Perseverance, cf. Faithfulness, Endurance, Dedication
Famous People I
1. The memo from the testing director of MGM, shortly after Fred Astaire’s first screen test, read: “Can’t act! Slightly bald! Can dance a little!”
2. An older “expert” once said of another younger coach, “He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivation.” In case you’re wondering, he was referring to Vince Lombardi.
3. The parents of Enrico Caruso believed his teacher, who said he had “no voice at all—he just cannot sing.” They urged him to be an engineer.
4. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for “lack of ideas.”
5. Thomas Edison’s teachers gave up on him. “He’s too stupid to do anything,” was their evaluation.
6. Before he succeeded, Henry Ford failed and went broke five times.
Charles Swindoll, Kindred Spirit, Vol. 22, No. 3, Autumn, 1998, p. 3.
Famous People II
1. After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, a 1933 memo from the MGM testing director said: “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
2. An expert said of famous football coach Vince Lombardi: “He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivation.”
3. Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was advised by her family to find work as a servant or seamstress.
4. Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.
5. The teacher of famous opera singer Enrico Caruso said Caruso had no voice at all and could not sing.
6. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.
7. Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach’s 10,000 word story about a soaring seagull before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, Jonathan Livingston Seagull had sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone.”
Taken from Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit, written and compiled by Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen. Quoted in Countdown! Golden Minutes Ministries, October, 1977
How Badly Do You Want It?
If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, your peace, and your sleep for it … if all that you dream and scheme is about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it … if you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it and lose all your terror of the opposition for it…if you simply go after that thing you want with all of your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith, hope and confidence and stern pertinacity … if neither cold, poverty, famine, nor gout, sickness nor pain, of body and brain, can keep you away from the thing that you want…if dogged and grim you beseech and beset it, with the help of God, you WILL get it!
Les Brown, Live Your Dreams, Avon Books, quoted in Bits & Pieces, Vol. T/No. 17, pp. 21-22
Be Strong!
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift:
We have hard work to do and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle: face it ‘tis God’s gift.
Be strong!
Say not the days are evil who’s to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s Name,
Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day, how long;
Faint not, fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.
- Maltbie Babcock (d. 1901)
Source unknown
William Carey
William Carey, often considered the father of modern missions, once wrote: “If, after my removal, anyone should think it is worth his while to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he give me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly…I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit.”
Today in the Word, April, 1998, p. 33
Great Artists and Musicians
Most people tend to think that great artists and musicians produce their works in relatively quick bursts of creative energy. But the facts suggest otherwise. It is said that Beethoven rewrote each bar of his music at least a dozen times.
For his work “Last Judgment,” considered one of the twelve master paintings of the ages, Michelangelo produced more than 2,000 sketches and renderings during the eight years it took him to complete his masterpiece.
It’s safe to say that anything of lasting value requires patient commitment even in the face of adversity.
Today in the Word, April, 1998, p. 27
The Reforester
Jean Giono tells the story of Elzeard Bouffier, a shepherd he met in 1913 in the French Alps.
At that time, because of careless deforestation, the mountains around Provence, France, were barren. Former villages were deserted because their springs and brooks had run dry. The wind blew furiously, unimpeded by foliage.
While mountain climbing, Giono came to a shepherd’s hut, where he was invited to spend the night.
After dinner Giono watched the shepherd meticulously sort through a pile of acorns, discarding those that were cracked or undersized. When the shepherd had counted out 100 perfect acorns, he stopped for the night and went to bed.
Giono learned that the 55-year-old shepherd had been planting trees on the wild hillsides for over three years. He had planted 1,100,000 trees, 20,000 of which had sprouted. Of those, he expected half to be eaten by rodents or die to the elements, and the other half to live.
After World War I, Giono returned to the mountainside and discovered incredible rehabilitation: there was a veritable forest, accompanied by a chain reaction in nature. Water flowed in the once-empty brooks. The ecology, sheltered by a leafy roof and bonded to the earth by a mat of spreading roots, become hospitable. Willows, rushes, meadows, gardens, and flowers were birthed.
Giono returned again after World War II. Twenty miles from the lines, the shepherd had continued his work, ignoring the war of 1939 just as he had ignored that of 1914. The reformation of the land continued. Whole regions glowed with health and prosperity.
Giono writes, “On the site of the ruins I had seen in 1913 now stand neat farms….The old streams, fed by the rains and snows that the forest conserves, are flowing again….Little by little, the villages have been rebuilt. People from the plains, where land is costly, have settled here, bringing youth, motion, the spirit of adventure.”
Those who pray are like spiritual reforesters, digging holes in barren land and planting the seeds of life. Through these seeds, dry spiritual wastelands are transformed into harvestable fields, and life-giving water is brought to parched and barren souls.
Hal Seed, Oceanside, California, Leadership, Spring, 1993, p. 48
Great Novelist
When A. J. Cronin retired as a London doctor because of ill health, he moved to a quiet farming community in Scotland. There Cronin hoped to start a new career as a novelist, a dream he had had since childhood.
For months he worked in a small attic room, filling tablet after tablet with handwritten text, and sending it off to a London secretarial bureau to be typed. Finally the first typed chapters were returned in the mail. He picked them up eagerly, anxious to get a fresh impression of what he had written.
As Cronin read the manuscript, his disgust mounted. How could he have written such terrible material? He was a failure already—with his first book only half written. He stomped out into the drizzling rain for a lonely walk, throwing the manuscript onto an ash pile beside the house.
Crossing the heath, he met a neighbor, an old farmer, digging a drainage ditch in a boggy field. The farmer inquired how Cronin’s writing was coming along. When Cronin reported what he had done with his manuscript, the old farmer was silent for several minutes. Then he spoke.
“No doubt you’re the one that’s right, and I’m the one that’s wrong. My father ditched this bog all his days and never made a pasture. But pasture or no pasture, I cannot help but dig. For my father knew, and I know, that if you only dig enough, a pasture can be made here.”
Ashamed of himself, Cronin walked back to the house, picked the manuscript out of the ashes, and dried it out in the oven. Then he went back to work, writing and rewriting until it satisfied him. The book was Hatter’s Castle, the first in a long string of successful novels.
Bits & Pieces, January 5, 1995, pp. 11-13
Olympic Trials
Runner’s World (8/91), told the story of Beth Anne DeCiantis’s attempt to qualify for the 1992 Olympic Trials marathon. A female runner must complete the 27-mile, 385-yard race in less than two hours, forty-five minutes to compete at the Olympic Trials.
Beth started strong but began having trouble around mile 23. She reached the final straightaway at 243, with just two minutes left to qualify. Two hundred yards from the finish, she stumbled and fell. Dazed, she stayed down for twenty seconds. The crowd was ticking—2:44, less than a minute to go.
Beth Anne staggered to her feet and began walking. Five yards short of the finish, with ten seconds to go, she fell again. She began to crawl, the crowd cheering her on, and crossed the finish line on her hands and knees. Her time? Two hours, 44 minutes, 57 seconds.
Hebrews 12:1 reminds us to run our race with perseverance and never give up.
Terry Fisher, San Mateo, California, quoted in Preaching Resources, Spring 1996, p. 69.
Quotes
- We are judged by what we finish, not by what we start. - Anon
- There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks. - David Lloyd George
- If you aren’t practicing, someone else is. - Anon
- By perseverance the snail reached the ark. - C. H. Spurgeon
Sources unknown
The Race
“Quit!” “Give up, you’re beaten,” they shout and plead
there’s just too much against you now, this time you can’t succeed.
And as I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
And hope refills my weakened will as I recall that scene,
for just the thought of that short race rejuvenates my being.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their fathers watched from off the side, each cheering for his son,
and each boy hoped to show his dad that he would be the one.
The whistle blew and off they went, young hearts and hopes of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, his dad was in the crowd,
was running near the lead and thought, “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field across a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought to win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his hands, flew out to brace,
and mid the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
So, down he fell and with him hope, he couldn’t win it now.
Embarrassed, sad, he only wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs, he slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
But, in the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face,
that steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last,
if I’m going to gain those yards, he thought, I’ve got to run real fast.
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight or ten,
but trying so hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently, a tear dropped from his eye,
there’s no sense running anymore—three strikes I’m out—why try?
The will to rise had disappeared, all hope had fled away,
so far behind, so error prone, closer all the way.
“I’ve lost, so what’s the use,” he thought, “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.
“Get up,” an echo sounded low. “Get up and take your place.
You were not meant for failure here, get up and win that race.”
With borrowed will, “Get up,” it said, “you haven’t lost at all,
for winning is not more than this; to rise each time you fall.”
So, up he rose to run once more, and with a new commit,
he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran as though to win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered the winning runner as he crossed, first place;
head high and proud and happy—no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, last place,
the crowd gave him the greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”
And now when things seem dark and hard and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
“Quit!” “Give up, you’re beaten,” they still shout in my face,
but another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race.”
Family Times
When Things Go Wrong
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
So don’t give up, though the pace seems slow—
For you may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than it seems
to a fain and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup.
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure, turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
Anonymous
Who is Clint Courtney?
If you’re unsure, don’t bother requesting the answer from Cooperstown, N.Y. Clint never came close to making it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In fact, it’s very doubtful that his picture appeared on any bubble gum cards.
This guy wasn’t a legend in his own time—not even in his own mind. He was only a memory maker for his family, and a few die-hard fans who were inspired by his tremendous fortitude. Clint played catcher for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1950s. During his career he earned the nickname of Scrap Iron, implying that he was hard, weathered, tough. Old Scrap broke no records—only bones. He had little power or speed on the base paths. As for grace and style, he made the easiest play look rather difficult. But armed with mitt and mask, Scrap Iron never flinched from any challenge. Batters often missed the ball and caught his shin. Their foul tips nipped his elbow. Runners fiercely plowed into him, spikes first, as he defended home plate.
Though often doubled over in agony, and flattened in a heap of dust, Clint Courtney never quit. Invariably, he’d slowly get up, shake off the dust, punch the pocket of his mitt once, twice, and nod to his pitcher to throw another one. The game would go on and Courtney with it—scarred, bruised, clutching his arm in pain, but determined to continue. He resembled a POW with tape, splints, braces, and other kinds of paraphernalia that wounded people wear. Some made fun of him—calling him a masochist. Insane. Others remember him as a true champion.
Courage - You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, pp. 35-36
George Mueller
One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved.
Our Daily Bread, January 13
Andrew Jackson
The story is told that Andrew Jackson’s boyhood friends just couldn’t understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson’s friends said, “Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now.” Another friend responded, “How did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn’t they usually say three times and out?” “Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat—he would never stay ‘throwed.’ Jim Brown would get tired, and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner.”
Picking up on that idea, someone has said, “The thing that counts is not how many times you are ‘throwed,’ but whether you are willing to stay ‘throwed.’” We may face setbacks, but we must take courage and go forward in faith. Then, through the Holy Spirit’s power we can be the eventual victor over sin and the world. The battle is the Lord’s, so there is no excuse for us to stay “throwed”!
Our Daily Bread, December 11
Florence Chadwick I
When she was young, Florence Chadwick wanted desperately to be a great speed swimmer. At the age of six she persuaded her parents to enter her in a 50-yard race. She came in last, so she practiced every day for the new year. Again she entered and lost. When she was an 11-year old, Florence won attention and praise for completing the San Diego Bay endurance swim—6 miles in all. But she still wanted to be a speed swimmer. At 14 she tried for the national backstroke championship but came in second to the great Eleanor Holm. At 18 she tried out for Olympic speed swimming and came in fourth—only three made the team. Frustrated, she gave it up, married, and moved on to other interests. As she matured, however, Florence began to wonder if she might not have done better if she had specialized in endurance swimming, something that came more naturally. So, with the help of her father, she began swimming distances again. Twelve years after she had failed to make the Olympic team, Florence Chadwick swam the English Channel, breaking Gertrude Ederle’s 24-year-old record. It took a little time, but eventually she found out what she could do best and did it.
Crossroads, Issue No. 7, p. 19.
Florence Chadwick II
From the booklet Bits and Pieces comes an interesting story about Florence Chadwick, the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On the Fourth of July in 1951, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The challenge was not so much the distance, but the bone-chilling waters of the Pacific. To complicate matters, a dense fog lay over the entire area, making it impossible for her to see land. After about 15 hours in the water, and within a half mile of her goal, Chadwick gave up.
Later she told a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself. But if I could have seen land, I might have made it.” Not long afterward she attempted the feat again. Once more a misty veil obscured the coastline and she couldn’t see the shore. But this time she made it because she kept reminding herself that land was there. With that confidence she bravely swam on and achieved her goal. In fact, she broke the men’s record by 2 hours!
Our Daily Bread, October 26
Florence Chadwick III
It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. She intended to be the first woman to swim the 21 miles from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new to her; she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbing cold that day. The fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than 15 hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit… less than one-mile from her goal.
Later she said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I might have made it.” It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was the fog.
Many times we too fail, not because we’re afraid or because of the peer pressure or because of anything other than the fact that we lose sight of the goal. Maybe that’s why Paul said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).
Two months after her failure, Florence Chadwick walked off the same beach into the same channel and swam the distance, setting a new speed record, because she could see the land.
- John Cochran
Source unknown
Famous People Who Were Slow Starters
1. Winston Churchill seemed so dull as a youth that his father thought he might be incapable of earning a living in England.
2. Charles Darwin did so poorly in school that his father once told him, “You will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.
3. G.K. Chesterton, the English writer, could not read until he was eight. One of his teachers told him, “If we could open your head we should not find any brain but only a lump of white fat.”
4. Thomas Edison’s first teacher described him as “addled,” and his father almost convinced him he was a dunce.”
5. Albert Einstein’s parents feared their child was dull, and he performed so badly in all high school courses except mathematics that a teacher asked him to drop out.
Book of Lists, 1986, Irving Wallace, Wm. Morrow & Co., NY, NY
This Too Shall Pass
Don’t let your troubles get you down.
Genghis Khan, the 13th century Mongol conqueror, asked his philosophers to come up with a truth that would always be unchangeable. Thinking on it for a while, they came to their leaders with this quote: “It too shall pass.”
This reminds me of a dear black lady who was asked by her pastor what her favorite verse of Scripture was and she said: “And it came to pass.” God in His mercy never gives us more than we are able to bear.
The Abingdon Disciple, Abingdon, Ill.
Epigrams on Perseverance
1. There aren’t any hard-and-fast rules for getting ahead in the world—just hard ones.
2. You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days. - Healthways
3. There is no poverty that can overtake diligence. - Japanese proverb
4. By perseverance the snail reached the Ark. - Spurgeon
5. Triumph is just umph added to try.
C. Swindoll, Growing Strong, page 48.
Paderewski
Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous Polish composer-pianist, was once scheduled to perform at a great American concert hall for a high-society extravaganza. In the audience was a mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, the boy slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the Steinway on the stage.
Without much notice from the audience, he sat down at the stool and began playing “chopsticks.” The roar of the crowd turned to shouts as hundreds yelled, “Get that boy away from there!” When Paderewski heard the uproar backstage, he grabbed his coat and rushed over behind the boy. Reaching around him from behind, the master began to improvise a countermelody to “Chopsticks.” As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy’s ear, “Keep going. Don’t quit, son…don’t stop…don’t stop.”
Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, Jan., 1992, p. 8
Two Frogs
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl;
The one was wise, and a cheery soul.
The other one took a gloomy view
And bade his friend a sad adieu.
Said the other frog with a merry grin,
“I can’t get out, but I won’t give in;
I’ll swim around till my strength is spent,
Then I will die the more content.”
And as he swam, though ever it seemed,
His struggling began to churn the cream
Until on top of pure butter he stopped,
And out of the bowl he quickly hopped.
The moral, you ask? Oh, it’s easily found!
If you can’t get out, keep swimming around.
Our Daily Bread, November 29
Resources
- Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel, Word, 1987, p.126
- Swindoll, The Quest for Character, Multnomah, pp. 187ff, “Gumption”
Source unknown
Greatness
Author Irving Stone has spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life…have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished…and they go to work.
“They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time they’re knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they’ve accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do.”
Crossroads, Issue No. 7, p. 18
White Out
Bette Nesmith had a good secretarial job in a Dallas bank when she ran across a problem that interested her. Wasn’t there a better way to correct the errors she made on her electric typewriter? Bette had some art experience and she knew that artists who worked in oils just painted over their errors. Maybe that would work for her too. So she concocted a fluid to paint over her typing errors. Before long, all the secretaries in her building were using what she then called “Mistake Out.” She attempted to sell the product idea to marketing agencies and various companies (including IBM), but they turned her down. However, secretaries continued to like her product, so Bette Nesmith’s kitchen became her first manufacturing facility and she started selling it on her own.
When Bette Nesmith sold the enterprise, the tiny white bottles were earning $3.5 million annually on sales of $38 million. The buyer was Gillette Company and the sale price was $47.5 million.
Crossroads, Issue No. 7, pp. 3-4
Mount Rushmore
“American history shall march along that skyline,” announced Gutzon Borglum in 1924, gazing at the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 1927 Borglum began sculpting the images of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt on the granite face of 6,000-foot Mount Rushmore. Most of the sculpting was done by experienced miners under Borglum’s direction. Working with jackhammers and dynamite, they removed some 400,000 tons of outer rock, cutting within three inches of the final surface. When Borglum died in March 1941, his dream of the world’s biggest sculpture was near completion. His son Lincoln finished the work that October, some 14 years after it was begun.
Today in the Word, January 2, 1993
Olympians
Have you ever worked to get better at something? If so, you soon realized that the cliché “practice makes perfect” is true. Olympic Athletes seem to succeed with effortless grace, but their performances aren’t as easy as they look.
The average Olympian trains four hours a day at least 310 days a year for six years before succeeding. Getting better begins with working out every day. By 7:00 a.m. most athletes have done more than many people do all day. How well an athlete performs is often attributed to mental toughness. But performance really depends on physical capacity to do work. That capacity is based on two factors—genetic talent and the quality of the training program. Good training makes up for some limitations, but most of us will never be Olympians no matter how hard we work. We haven’t inherited the right combination of endurance, potential, speed and muscle. But given equal talent, the better-trained athlete can generally outperform the one who did not give a serious effort, and is usually more confident at the starting block.
The four years before an Olympics, Greg Louganis probably practiced each of his dives 3000 times. Kim Zmeskal has probably done every flip in her gymnastics routine at least 20,000 times, and Janet Evans has completed more than 240,000 laps. Training works, but it isn’t easy or simple. Swimmers train an average of 10 miles a day, at speeds of 5 mph in the pool. That might not sound fast, but their heart rates average 160 the entire time. Try running up a flight of stairs, then check your heart rate. Then imagine having to do that for four hours! Marathon runners average 160 miles a week at 10 mph.
Two important training principles must be followed: Progressively increase the amount and intensity of the work. Train specifically. Weightlifters don’t run sprints, and basketball players don’t swim.
John Troup, USA Today, July 29, 1992, 11E
H. Ross Perot
During the Vietnam War the Texas Computer millionaire, H. Ross Perot decided he would give a Christmas present to every American prisoner of war in Vietnam. According to David Frost, who tells the story, Perot had thousands of packages wrapped and prepared for shipping. He chartered a fleet of Boeing 707s to deliver them to Hanoi, but the war was at its height, and the Hanoi government said it would refuse to cooperate. No charity was possible, officials explained, while American bombers were devastating Vietnamese villages. The wealthy Perot offered to hire an American construction firm to help rebuild what Americans had knocked down. The government still wouldn’t cooperate. Christmas drew near, and the packages were unsent.
Refusing to give up, Perot finally took off in his chartered fleet and flew to Moscow, where his aides mailed the packages, one at a time, at the Moscow central post office. They were delivered intact.
Source unknown
Olympic Gold Medalist, Wilma Rudolph
Wilma didn’t get much of a head start in life. A bout with polio left her left leg crooked and her foot twisted inward so she had to wear leg braces. After seven years of painful therapy, she could walk without her braces. At age 12 Wilma tried out for a girls basketball team, but didn’t make it. Determined, she practiced with a girlfriend and two boys every day. The next year she made the team. When a college track coach saw her during a game, he talked her into letting him train her as a runner. By age 14 she had outrun the fastest sprinters in the U.S. In 1956 Wilma made the U.S. Olympic team, but showed poorly. That bitter disappointment motivated her to work harder for the 1960 Olympics in Rome—and there Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals, the most a woman had ever won.
Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, Jan., 1992, p. 10
Astronomic Discovery
Persistence paid off for American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet Pluto. After astronomers calculated a probable orbit for this “suspected” heavenly body, Tombaugh took up the search in March 1929. Time magazine recorded the investigation: “He examined scores of telescopic photographs each showing tens of thousands of star images in pairs under the dual microscope. It often took three days to scan a single pair. It was exhausting, eye-cracking work—in his own words, ‘brutal, tediousness.’ And it went on for months.
Star by star, he examined 20 million images. Then on February 18, 1930, as he was blinking at a pair of photographs in the constellation Gemini, ‘I suddenly came upon the image of Pluto!” It was the most dramatic astronomic discovery in nearly 100 years.
Today in the Word, November 26, 1991
Tenacity
Tenacity is a pretty fair substitute for bravery, and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in a Danish fur trapper’s principle: “The next mile is the only one a person really has to make.”
Eric Sevareid in Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, p. 19
Those are the Ones
Those on the heights are not the souls
Who never erred nor went astray,
Who trod unswerving to their goals
Along a smooth, rose-bordered way.
Nay, those who stand where first comes dawn,
Are those who stumbled—but went on.
J. S. Baxter, Explore the Book
Postage Stamps
Postage stamps are getting more expensive, but at least they have one attribute that most of us could emulate: They stick to one thing until they get there.
Source unknown
Nothing Takes Its Place
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge, in Bits and Pieces
Plato
Plato wrote the first sentence of his famous Republic nine different ways before he was satisfied. Cicero practiced speaking before friends every day for thirty years to perfect his elocution. Noah Webster labored 36 years writing his dictionary, crossing the Atlantic twice to gather material. Milton rose at 4:00 a.m. every day in order to have enough hours for his Paradise Lost. Gibbon spent 26 years on his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Bryant rewrote one of his poetic masterpieces 99 times before publication, and it became a classic.
Source unknown
Thomas Edison I
It is said that Thomas Edison performed 50,000 experiments before he succeeded in producing a storage battery. We might assume the famous inventor would have had some serious doubts along the way. But when asked if he ever became discouraged working so long without results, Edison replied, “Results? Why, I know 50,000 things that won’t work.”
Today in the Word, August, 1990
Thomas Edison II
“Genius is 2% inspiration and 98 % perspiration” (Thomas Edison). Edison worked 18 hour days and practiced Herculean patience. Once he recognized the value of an idea, Edison stayed with the process until he discovered its secret. His alkaline storage battery became a reality after 10,000 failed experiments!
Moody Bible Institute’s Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 35
Keep Your Eyes on the Goal
On March 6, 1987, Eamon Coughlan, the Irish world record holder at 1500 meters, was running in a qualifying heat at the World Indoor Track Championships in Indianapolis. With two and a half laps left, he was tripped. He fell, but he got up and with great effort managed to catch the leaders. With only 20 yards left in the race, he was in third place—good enough to qualify for the finals. He looked over his shoulder to the inside, and, seeing no one, he let up. But another runner, charging hard on the outside, passed Coughlan a yard before the finish, thus eliminating him from the finals.
Coughlan’s great comeback effort was rendered worthless by taking his eyes off the finish line. It’s tempting to let up when the sights around us look favorable. But we finish well in the Christian race only when we fix our eyes on the goal: Jesus Christ
Source unknown
Walter Payton
During a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers observed that Walter Payton, the Bears’ running back, had accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage. The other announcer remarked, “Yeah, and that’s with somebody knocking him down every 4.6 yards!”
Walter Payton, the most successful running back ever, knows that everyone—even the very best—gets knocked down. The key to success is to get up and run again just as hard.
- Jeff Quandt
From Irving Wallace, Book of Lists, 1980
Battle Against Slave Trade
Young William Wilberforce was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10 year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again:
“Unless the divine power has raised you up… I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of His might.”
Our Daily Bread, June 16, 1989
Condensed Milk
Nineteenth-century inventor Gail Borden was obsessed with the idea of condensing food. His first effort, a condensed “meat biscuit,” failed miserably. But an ocean voyage gave birth to a better idea. Borden was concerned about the sickly condition of the children on board. Cows on the ship were too seasick to produce healthy milk, and four children died from drinking contaminated milk. Borden was determined to condense milk so that it would be safe and easily transported.
After many tries, he devised a vacuum process that removed water from milk. Conditions during the Civil War made the canned milk a success, and Borden make a fortune. His epitaph, inscribed on a tomb the shape of a milk can, was, “I tried and failed; I tried again and again, and succeeded.”
Discipleship Journal, #48, p. 33
Illustration of Perseverance
The value of courage, persistence, and perseverance has rarely been illustrated more convincingly than in the life story of this man (his age appears in the column on the right):
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|
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Failed in business |
22 |
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Ran for Legislature—defeated |
23 |
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Again failed in business |
24 |
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Elected to Legislature |
25 |
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Sweetheart died |
26 |
|
Had a nervous breakdown |
27 |
|
Defeated for Speaker |
29 |
|
Defeated for Elector |
31 |
|
Defeated for Congress |
34 |
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Elected to Congress |
37 |
|
Defeated for Congress |
39 |
|
Defeated for Senate |
46 |
|
Defeated for Vice President |
47 |
|
Defeated for Senate |
49 |
|
Elected President of the United States |
51 |
That’s the record of Abraham Lincoln.
Bits and Pieces, July, 1989
Concert Pianist
Imagine that you are a world-class concert pianist at the peak of your career, someone who has spent years studying and practicing to develop your art. Your fingers respond instantly to your mental commands, flitting along the keyboard with grace and speed. Then one day you feel a stiffness that wasn’t there before. You go to a doctor, tests are done, and the diagnosis comes back: arthritis. Your fingers are destined to become wooden and crippled. From the heights of success and acclaim you will plunge to oblivion.
It happened to Byron Janis. Within a short time this concert pianist saw arthritis quickly spread to all his fingers, and the joints of nine of them fused. Some people would have never recovered from such a blow, but Janis decided to fight back. He kept his ailment a secret from all but his wife and two close friends. He worked long hours to change his technique. He learned how to use what strengths he had instead of concentrating on his weaknesses. He also used a regimen of medications, acupuncture, ultrasound, and even hypnosis to deal with the pain. His wife learned how to give him therapeutic massages to loosen his stiff joints.
Through hard work and sheer determination, Janis was able to continue his career. He maintained a full concert schedule for 12 years without anyone suspecting. Finally, he told the world at a White House concert in 1985. These days, he is active in fund-raising for the Arthritis Foundation and still plays the piano. He credits faith, and hope, and will for his success and says, “I have arthritis, but it doesn’t have me.”
Bits and Pieces, August, 1989
Press on
Press on.
Nothing in the world
Can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not;
Nothing is more common
Than unsuccessful men
With talent.
Genius will not:
Unrewarded genius
Is almost a proverb.
Education will not;
The world is full of
Educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination
Alone are important
- anonymous
Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 93
John Calvin
Theologian John Calvin was afflicted with rheumatism and migraine headaches. Yet he preached, wrote books, and governed Geneva, Switzerland, for 25 years.
Source unknown
The Little Burro
John Killinger retells this story from Atlantic Monthly about the days of the great western cattle rancher:
“A little burro sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging, convulsing like drunken sailors, the two would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging that little burro along and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first, trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world, that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burro, and in that moment, the burro would take mastery and become the leader. And that is the way it is with the kingdom and its heroes, isn’t it? The battle is to the determined, not to the outraged; to the committed, not to those who are merely dramatic.
Leadership, Summer, 1989
Henry Ford
Automobile genius Henry Ford once came up with a revolutionary plan for a new kind of engine which we know today as the V-8. Ford was eager to get his great new idea into production. He had some men draw up the plans, and presented them to the engineers. As the engineers studied the drawings, one by one they cane to the same conclusion. Their visionary boss just didn’t know much about the fundamental principles of engineering. He’d have to be told gently—his dream was impossible. Ford said, “Produce it anyway.” They replied, “But it’s impossible.” “Go ahead,” Ford commanded, “and stay on the job until you succeed, no matter how much time is required.”
For six months they struggled with drawing after drawing, design after design. Nothing. Another six months. Nothing. At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers and they once again told him that what he wanted was impossible. Ford told them to keep going. They did. And they discovered how to build a V-8 engine.
Napolean Hill, Think and Grow Rich, 1960
From the Diary of John Wesley
Sunday, A.M., May 5
Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5
Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said “Get out and stay out.”
Sunday, A.M., May 12
Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19
Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19
Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26
Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2
Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2
Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.
Source unknown
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