Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Persistence

by Pastor William Jenkins

March 10, 2006

A computer was programmed to notify magazine subscribers by mail when it was time to renew their subscriptions. One day it went “on the blink”, and before anyone noticed the malfunction it sent 11,834 letters to a farmer in Montana telling him his subscription had expired.

The local postmaster had to hire a special truck to deliver all the letters. After the farmer had read 200 or more of the letters, he sat down and wrote out a check to renew his subscription. He attached the following note to his check: “I give up! Enclosed is my check for a renewed subscription.” The persistence of the magazine company overcame the subscriber’s will to resist.

In the Bible, Jesus told about a certain man and a widow who were persistent. The man went to a neighbor’s house late one night and knocked and knocked until the neighbor gave up and came to the door. The widow wanted a certain judge to satisfy an injustice against her. He did not think she was of any importance; so he refused. She kept at him until he gave up and granted her request. Because they did not give up, the man knocking and the widow asking got what they needed. The lesson is that it pays to persist.

We tend to give up too easily on matters of importance. We give up too easily on education, a dream, a marriage, a job, another person, ourselves and whatever it is you gave up on recently.

It’s never too late to go back at it and begin again to persist in a worthy endeavor. Persistence can be a tedious exercise, but it pays large dividends.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org