Just Keep Showing Up

Do you ever get so discouraged that you ask yourself, why bother? Is anyone even noticing all this work I’m doing? It just doesn’t seem like anything’s changing.

I think it’s part of human nature to ask these questions. I think it’s part of the evaluating and recalculating of our life’s journey. There are times that the answer is to turn another direction, or stop doing what you’ve been doing and try something else. The hard part is knowing whether or not you’re making the decision based on short term or long term thinking.

There are days I would much rather just sit in my little canoe and let the current take me where it may. Short term, I’m just too tired to paddle right now. The problem is that, long term, when I do regain my energy and am ready to paddle again, I’m miles further down the river and now I have to work twice as hard just to get back to where I was in the first place! And that’s when a lot of people just give up and stop showing up.

Life is not about passive attendance, it’s about active engagement. Its not about letting the current of life take you wherever. You’ll miss out on so much if you’re just “along for the ride.” To really get all there is to get out of each and every day that God gives us, we have to actively engage in life. We have to show up.

Sometimes there are long stretches of boring and tedious in between the beauty and the glory, but we have to keep showing up. Sometimes it feels like we’re the only one going one way and everyone else is going the opposite direction, but we have to keep showing up. The problem with most folks is that sometimes it just takes too long to get to the good stuff or it’s too lonely and stressful to be the only one going north when everyone else is going south. Paddling that canoe can get hard and sometimes it seems like just stopping where we are is good enough.

We are conditioned by the world to value instant over long term. Think of all the things we use everyday to make our lives easier. Most of them even have the word “instant” as part of the descriptor:

Instant breakfast

Instant coffee

Instant credit

I’m not saying that instant is bad…..it’s actually helpful at times. Its just that there is a difference between instant, or short term, and long term. Instant is right now, just do it, hurry, hurry hurry. Long term is focused, methodical, planful and the results last.

To focus on the long term, you have to be ready for hard work. You have to keep reminding yourself of the end goal and remember that it takes time. You have to be willing to set aside the immediate for the transformational. And it will not be easy or instant.

But there is something to be said for the lasting and substantive value of working towards the long term. Investing long term in our kids gives them a strong sense of self and worth. Investing long term in our careers gives us success and stability. Investing our time and energy into life can make the world we live in better, for us and those that come long after us.

I can’t stay floating in my canoe. I have to show up to life, day in and day out. I have to keep my eyes and heart open to whatever God has planned for me. I can’t get tired of doing good or frustrated that no one is noticing. Ultimately that part doesn’t really matter anyway. God has given my a quiet little life to actively participate in. So I’m going to keep showing up. I’m going to keep paddling away because I’m focused on the long term. I want to leave a better world for my children and grandbabies and their children!