SLOGGING
2: to plod (one's way) perseveringly especially against difficulty
intransitive verb
1: to plod heavily : tramp <slogged through the snow>
Slogging. Hard steady work. When life
confronts us with its difficulty. When days are brutally long or bitterly
quick. When our soul aches more than our body. When we are afraid to take our
eye off the prize, even when we have long since forgotten what is the prize.
Hard. Tough. Demanding. Why is that
we have such a hard time admitting when our lives feel overwhelmed? Why do we have
such a tough time acknowledging when we are burned out? What makes it so awful
to claim that we are exhausted and weary to the bone?
Most of the time, like it or not, we are required to face many dreary
days of never fulfilling our endless list of expectations. Many of our days
will swarm with anxiety from dawn until dusk. In today’s modern world, we are bombarded
by the message -- we are just never enough.
We are not good enough husbands or
wives. Our parenting falls short – way short. As sons and daughters, we are often
a huge disappointment. As brothers and sisters, we at times feel trapped in a
Demolition Derby. We are not sexy or sexual enough. We lack the street smarts
or the brains. We just don’t have the pzazz or “it factor”. We are, in short,
severely limited. Just human.
For many of us, we have come to feel
like we are taking an endurance test which nobody will pass. We are confident
that we have never been called to anything important. We fret over the mistakes
of the past, and worry ourselves sick about the future. We would not call
ourselves a loser, but we certainly suspect we are a great distance from being
a winner.
It is not my intention to offer a
solution here. I cannot offer solutions, because slogging is not a problem. It
is Life. Our lives. It is the reality of accepting Life on Life’s terms. We
will have to slog through a good chunk of our lives. We will have to work hard
to keep our heads above water, and our spirits aglow.
Nobody goes through Life
as a blazing torch. Most of us, much of the time, are just a dimly burning
wick.
What I do wish to offer here is
encouragement. Inspiration. Faith – not of the religious kind. Hope of the spiritual
kind. Hope which can be actualized by just trying.
Slogging is required for maturing. It
is the chief ingredient of dignity, and the foundation of integrity. Slogging
is walking the walk. Slogging is how we pick up our crosses and follow.
Slogging is embracing the fullness of our humanity. Slogging is seeing the
divinity revealed in hard steady work.
Our culture is always belittling us.
Making us feel inadequate, and shortchanged. We thereby tend to be endlessly
self-critical, and thus, become judgmental of others. We are incessantly told
that were we enough, our slogging days would be over. Well, this is just not
true. Not for anyone, anywhere, or at any time.
Slogging is the name of the game of
Life. It is the given of our existence. We not only must accept this spiritual
fact, we must embrace it. We need to squeeze slogging dry of its meaning and
message. We need to understand its immense value, and capacity to create worth
out of next to nothing. When we can accept slogging, we can also accept that
being just human is just enough.
Slogging may feel like marching in
place in quicksand. However, if you look closely, you will see the steady
movement of a soul seeking God. Inch by inch. Baby step by baby step. Like
erosion. Like a Spring seed climbing up through the earth in order to bloom. Bit
by bit. Moment by moment. Onward and upward.
Slogging is the movement of Life up
to higher ground. The real good life. The process by which we become truly good
people. Slogging is not a race with a checkered flag or trophy. Slogging is a
walk with purpose. It is choosing to move, head out, and seek. It is finding
our way to the Life and the God for which we yearn. Slogging is the longing to
get home.
Slogging is never ever easy. It does
indeed take blood, sweat, and tears. It requires a stiff upper lip. Fortitude
and gratitude. It is a journey which will traverse lands of great sorrow and delightful
joy. It is a pilgrimage of a kind. A pilgrimage which will require abundant
prayer. A pilgrimage which will create a clean heart within us. A pilgrimage
which will define us and offer us meaning.
Slogging is what takes us home to the
soul. To the essence of our being, and the force of our doing. To the core of
our spirit and the focus of our faith. Slogging knows the way back to black and
white Kansas. Those of us who slog, had to abandon our Oz’s long ago, but we are
wise to the truth -- there is no place like home.
Slogging, above all else, yields
wisdom. The wisdom to know what does last. How we can bring heaven to earth.
How we can make hope happen. How we can love our lives into loving. How we can forgive
and forgive and forgive again. How we can be Sabbath for others and Grace for
ourselves.
Slogging is nobody’s fool. Wise in
the ways of the heart. A bleeding heart which is ready to lift up those below.
A heart which bleeds with compassion, and care, and genuine concern. A heart
sliced wide open by the hard steady work and pain of being alive.
Slogging, you see, is not only wise
to the way back home, but how to make the leap of faith into the gracious arms
of God as well. A God who has patiently waited for us at the door all along.
Slogging. Just good enough for God.
Just good enough for us. Just plain good enough.
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