Recently, in my studying I ran into a quote that really got my attention. The author of the book quoted proverbs 21:5 in a modern translation and I found it was so fitting for what we are walking through.

“Steady plodding brings prosperity, hasty speculation brings poverty” (Proverbs 21:5 TLB).

COVID has changed our lifestyle and maybe you have by necessity had to change the way you do things. In our case, nearly all travel has been eliminated along with speaking and singing engagements. We have been sticking pretty close to home. At times, I have really felt shut in, a kind of cabin fever.

So, what do you do when you have to retreat to your home, and social events have been cut to a minimum?

There is no point in crabbing and complaining and saying, “What will I do? What will I do?” Instead, you adjust and make the best of it, right?

Most of my work at this point has been confined to my office, writing, studying, reading, praying, posting articles on the website and conducting some phone conversations. We have also been doing a lot of one-on-one ministry. Ministering to individuals is really a lot more important than we usually treat it. Jesus did a lot of ministry to individuals. Always running to the “crowd” ministry opportunities, with neglect to the personal, can actually be short sighted and shallow. It can be an indication that we always want do the big, exciting things, with neglect to personal, one-on-one ministry. It can actually indicate a degree of vanity in our make-up.

Working in the office, mostly on the computer, can get to you. So, I break up my work with time in my woodworking shop, working on some Christmas gifts. Working with my hands brings a much needed release of tensions from the mental work in my office. I thank God I have a woodworking shop.

When life is interrupted, and you can’t do some of the more exciting things, you adjust and keep yourself busy. The more you keep yourself busy, the less time you have to think about your partial confinement, which can bring you down.

You might call it plodding. Plodding is putting one foot in front of the other, doing the things that are in front of you to do, some of them potentially unpleasant. Really, this is a formula for success, is it not? You, of necessity, need to stay focused, identifying tasks and one by one crossing them off of the list. It is going forward perhaps at a speed that seems slow, but one by one you are accomplishing necessary tasks.

“One by one” is actually a key phrase to this subject. Many times, I have mentioned Pastor G. Mark Denyes, who mentored me for about 25 years. Several years ago, I was working at a multimedia company in downtown Minneapolis and on this particular day, I was ready to pull my hair out. My desk was covered with projects and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. I called Pastor Denyes. He immediately took my call and I proceeded to tell him I was feeling buried in work, looking at so many tasks that I didn’t know what to do.

“One at a time,” was his simple answer. “You can only do them one at a time.”

It’s true, isn’t it? Really, you can concentrate on just one thing at a time.

At another time, I was privileged to witness how he did things. Every morning the sanctuary was open between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. for prayer. That morning I was there for prayer and at 8 a.m. another fellow and myself struck up a conversation with Pastor Denyes as he walked to his office.

Once there, I noticed the top of his desk was completely void of anything but the mail from the day before. As we were talking, he sorted through it very quickly, throwing most of it away. A couple items were left, evidently important things he had to tend to, and he placed them on the top corner of his desk.

Then he chuckled quite gleefully, and he said, “There, I got that done.”

As I read between the lines, I realized Pastor Denyes did this every day. It took him about 60 seconds. Then he placed the important items on the corner of his desk, and I would guess after we left, he probably filed them, or passed them on to his secretary, or whatever had to be done to get them off of his plate.

By contrast, I can’t help but think of many people who struggle with the mail. It comes in, they don’t want to deal with it, and they set it aside. The next day it comes in, they don’t want to deal with it, and they place it on top of the mail from yesterday. This goes on for a few days, and pretty soon, they have a tall stack of mail. Now the task has become major, and very unpleasant, I might add.

There are times when I, too, fall prey to the mail stacking up, but for the most part I follow Pastor Denyes’ example. Each day I go to the mail box and collect the mail. The first thing I do, when I come through the door is to sort out Lorraine’s mail, and give it to her. Then with what is left, I go back to my office and shred what is useless to me. What I need to deal with, I file or put in its proper place. Then I am done with it and I know I will not have unneeded clutter accumulating on my desk, cluttering up my sub-conscious and slowing down my efficiency. I wrote a longer article on the effect that clutter in your space has on your mind and your work efficiency. It is on our website, entitled The Closet In Your Head. Look it up!

This is how you plod, and Proverbs says that if you habitually “plod,” you will find great success in life.

Photo taken and designed by Lorraine