Downs’ challenge today is to think back over the past two months and reflect on how we’re different because of the work we’ve done in this book. Do you feel you have changed? How do you feel about your persevering?
Keeping going can be hard. Truthfully examining ourselves and making note of what needs work takes courage. Actually doing the work to get healthy, emotionally, physically or spiritually, is brave. Facing set-backs honestly, getting up, and keeping on going is a whole other level of brave.
This book challenges us to own our identity and live it out. This book calls us to speak aloud what changes we want to see and go after them. Either of these things on their own can be tiring. Relentlessly pursuing something before seeing great progress can be tedious. Exhaustion and tedium together are a recipe for quitting. Maybe we slow down sometimes, but let’s not stop. Maybe we take a break that turns out to be a bit longer than we first though, just get back up. Maybe we worry we can’t finish, that we’ll never get there, that ok, keep going anyway at the right pace for you. Downs says, “Don’t quit trying to find the brave in your life.” This book shows us we can be brave and we can be different. Let’s take a breath if we need to, but let’s keep going to live out the identity we have in Christ as we yearn to be the very best version of ourselves.
I am proud that I’ve kept going, even on the days when I wanted to give up. Aside from my belief that God wanted me to read this book and comment on it like this publicly (an act of brave itself), the next biggest reason I’ve kept going is because of you. I love hearing about how this book chat is impacting you, whether you tell me here on the internet or privately by message. I love that God is using Downs’ book to work in your life. I love that I get to be a tiny part of it. Your participation in whatever form has inspired me and kept me going. As each day goes by and I can add one more to the sum of days I’ve publicly written, I feel my confidence rising. Thank you, friends. Let me encourage you: you can do this! You are worth keeping going. You are brave already! There’s a cloud of witnesses cheering you on!
You’ve done a great job each day summarizing the book!
I’ve been working on getting physically fit. I’m proud to say I’ve only missed 6 days of exercise this month. I’ve persevered and I’m seeing some results! That’s encouraging! You hit the nail on the head by commenting relentlessly pursuing something with progress is tedious. Keep going on your personal goals too!
Your perseverance is so great! I saw a poster holly furtick made (she posted on IG around the start of the year). The poster showed how a box for each day she wanted exercise (for the whole year-yikes) and she stuck a star or something on each days she did. At the end of the year she could see how well she did. She hadn’t managed to fill all the boxes but she said she’d done a lot more than she would have done otherwise. I thought it was a great visual idea for helped us see how our perseverance pays off—especially when it’s tedious!