It is sometimes difficult to give oneself to a long term goal that requires tedious dedication to less enjoyable but necessary intermediary steps.  One very simple example, relevant to me as a seminary student, concerns the study of biblical languages.  Almost everyone would love the ability to read the bible in Greek and Hebrew, but few have the long term vision to tread through the grammar and vocab.  It is my long term vision to rightly handle God’s word, expositing it with integrity week in and week out for the benefit of the church… but I don’t always want to learn the next rule of Greek or Hebrew syntax.  The same thing applies to building a house, learning the piano… or planting churches.

I remember hearing the testimony of missionary couple from New Tribes Missions.  They went through 4-6 years of training stateside, then they were dropped off in the middle of a jungle to plant a church among a cannibalistic tribe that had never seen white people.  They couldn’t communicate with anyone.  No friends.  No luxuries.  They endured horrific hardship, tediously trying to learn the language in a very strange, dangerous, and difficult place.  They didn’t even understand enough of the language to begin communicating the gospel message with anyone for the first five years of their mission!  Because this tribe had no written alphabet, these missionaries had to create a written language from scratch so that they could translate the bible, verse by verse.  It took them over 20 years of hard work and heart ache to plant a church.  But now, there is a church.  Day after day of loneliness and pain, steadily plodding towards the goal, the vision firm in their sights, and now there is a growing church in this tribe.  What vision has God given you to glorify Him with?  Will you persevere through the less enjoyable but necessary intermediary steps?

Here is a commercial that illustrates my point well…