The Journey of Life

The journey of life is never consistently up and to the right.

Allie Garfinkle wrote a great piece in Fortune magazine about Larsen Jensen, an Olympic swimmer and former Navy SEAL. In the interview, Jensen painted a picture of the grind to get to the podium.

“It does feel surreal [on the podium],” Jensen said. “It does because you spend so many years and there are so many thankless moments. In my sport, at 5 a.m., you’re in the water, even in the freezing winter. And where I grew up, it was all outdoor pools, frost on the pool deck. The loneliness of doing that, where not even coaches showed up … that was misery. That was grit, it was determination, and my own worst enemy was myself. It’s hard, lonely, and not very glamorous.”

The journey is never what it seems.

There is a perception of the road. A glorified skip down the path to the podium.

But the actual road is never in agreement with the perception.

The road is paved with grit, determination, desire, hard work, all those qualities we admire. We almost glorify those qualities.

But under each of these qualities is perseverance, the uncomfortable quality.

The peaks and valleys, twists and turns, that life throws at us.

The unexpected happens, the road doglegs left, health or death strikes, the economy turns, future is uncertain.

“Life is a lot of suffering, with some highlights that come in between.” Larsen Jensen

Perseverance is never fun. It is never a goal written in January. In fact, rarely is it planned for in life.

The need for perseverance just happens. It arises without warning.

But perseverance is a gift. Were it not for perseverance, the ego would win.

The way one perseveres builds a legacy.

In a world where we glorify the lives of others, we tend to miss the perseverance that we all walk through.

Be an ear for someone today. Just an ear, not a problem solver. You’ll need it in return someday.

That builds a legacy.

Scripture: Isaiah 40:30-31

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