I’m sure you all remember Aesop’s Fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare. Evidently, when the hare (rabbit) saw that the tortoise (turtle) was challenging him, he believed he would be a shoo-in because of the turtle’s slowness, so he decided to take a nap and woke up in time to see the turtle crossing the finish line ahead of him.
I definitely relate to that fable, because I feel like a turtle in a rabbit world. It could easily be intimidating to watch those rabbits run circles around my determinations, but gradually Christ is teaching me that although it may not seem like I’m accomplishing much, in His strength and power I’m able to finish whatever task He’s given me.
Comparisons are dangerous. I may look at my next door neighbor and envy her accomplishments, but my responsibility is not to compete but to be satisfied with my own unique abilities.
Also, I may have lost the physical ability to perform certain tasks but as I have opened my mind to new alternatives, I’ve developed new talents I never thought I had.
A big stumbling block is wanting to reverse the clock and still have the same physical abilities I had before, but I have to remember that even able-bodied people deteriorate and are not what they used to be. Turtles are very good at sticking their necks out and gaining yardage because of it. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:
I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus …. forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.