Quit While You're Ahead

I looked down and my belt was twisted. Yesterday, I wore a dress with a belt and I noticed it was twisted. I tried a couple of times running along the belt, all the way around, trying to work it out, and finally came to the realization that I was going to have to undo it, untwist it, and try again. The whole process took 20 seconds, but it made me recognize that sometimes, with wardrobes and in life, you have to stop, hit the reset button, and try again.

We’re told over and over to be persistent. That “winners never quit and quitters never win.” To “finish what you start.” But sometimes, all you need to do is fall back, regroup, and try it again. Have you ever reached out to your company’s IT department for technical support? What’s their first suggestion? “Have you restarted?” Maybe they’re onto something.

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

                                                                                                      --James 1:2

On my way to work today in rush hour traffic, I came to a spot that requires six lanes to merge into four. It’s your classic bottleneck situation. Every morning at this particular spot, I search for - and often fight for - an opening. I’ll mutter things such as “go!” and “just get over!” and “idiot.” (Yes, I talk to my mother-in-law with this mouth.) I become frustrated with drivers on the phone, out-of-towners, and the less-experienced mergers. 

This morning, however, I couldn’t get in. I would move up towards a non-existent space, then fall back again. I kept plowing ahead, quickly running out of lane, and with nowhere to go. Then I did something completely foreign and deviant and unconventional. I slowed down. I fell back. And, lo, there was an opening and it had been there all along. I was trying so hard to work my way into a non-existent space when a perfectly good one had been waiting just for me mere inches away.

“…Sometimes you’re ahead. Sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

                                                                     --Baz Luhrmann, from
                                                “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

                                                                                                   --Galatians 6:9