Originally published Wednesday, 15 October 2014.
i'm more than a little behind on my 31 days posts, but should be all caught up again by tomorrow. life happens. thus, my tuesday post will be brief. tonight i attended a speaker series lecture hosted by unc-charlotte. they have a gorgeous center city campus with a great view of the city (image above).
tonight they hosted charles best, who founded donorschoose.org when he was a young teacher in the bronx. his idea essentially established the crowd funding model (kickstarter, kiva, etc. all followed him) and has helped fund millions of projects to support millions of students and teachers in public school classrooms across the country. his lecture was particularly memorable to me, though, not because he's wildly successful and was on the cover of forbes recently. it's because he told the story of how he got started and how long it took for him to become wildly successful.
it took several years. and lots of slow progress. and lots of hard work. and lots of rejection. he didn't suddenly wake up one morning and donorschoose.org had become an overnight success.
i think in our twenties we're so eager to get where we're going, even if we don't know where that is. i know i am. i am easily frustrated when my ideas or endeavors don't immediately take off. i measure my blog, my job, my financial situation, etc. against those of others. the danger in that, though, is that i'm comparing my before to their after in a lot of ways. we don't see the hard work that goes into any successful endeavor. the bravery, the creativity, the vulnerability, the rejection. no one is really an overnight success, even if it might seem so.
i tend to lose interest in projects when they take longer than i anticipate. i get frustrated when i don't immediately achieve an expected end result. tonight's lecture reminded me that i need to focus more on the process. invest myself in the Lord and doing His work. if i feel called by Him to do something, then it's worth whatever effort, late nights, rejection and vulnerability i feel.
because if we don't take risks or put ourselves out there, then how do we expect to get anywhere?
i need to find fulfillment in Christ alone, not success or an end result, and rest in the joy of the process. giving up on ideas or projects that inspire me just because they feel too big or overwhelming or aren't achieving results is giving up on the work the Lord has called me to do. i'm not willing to do that, and tonight, i'm encouraged to work harder.
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