I try to go on a walk for exercise every morning. As I tie my shoes before heading out I inevitably find ants with a literal death grip on my shoe laces from my walk the day before. They got a hold of my laces and held on until they died. Every morning I clear my laces before walking and every morning there are new dead ants. I also find them regularly on the frayed seams of my pant legs.
They often cause me to pause and wonder at the tenacity with which they bite and hold on. Even when they are long dead they can be found still locked to the spot where they attacked. It is a challenge to me as I face another dreary day of translation. The day we do we our initial drafting the work is actually interesting. Then come the days of going over it again and again, check after check, with a fine-tooth comb. The fun of initial drafting becomes a very, very, distant memory. It reminds me of what A.W. Tozer said about foreign missions: “romantic to talk about but drably realistic to live through.”
Pray for tenacity as we face each day.