OVERNIGHT SUCCESS I

There are very few projects, goals or metrics that are true Overnight Successes. Most goals we set require practice and repetition to become an accustomed response.
This may seem obvious and like ‘first steps’ until we learn that athletes, astronauts, airline pilots and stone masons, all practice and practice until what they do is done without processing… it is a learned patterned response.

Biz Stone, Twitter cofounder, wrote this in ‘Things a Little Bird Told Me’:
“Timing, perseverance and ten years of trying, will eventually make you feel like an overnight success.”

This all certainly translates to our Spiritual Development, our Formation as disciples of Christ. Our growth in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, silence, solitude, giving, fasting, rest and celebration, etc., are all things that take time to develop. At least in my case…none of this is very simple, overnight or easy. It is practice, practice and some more practice. Study, tennis, stock market, bread making… we practice what we determine is worth our effort and what we have decided is valuable.

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair (literally: ‘anoint your head’) and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Jesus