601 Years…and 40 Days

From today’s reading…

In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,

in the first month, on the first day of the month,

the water began to dry up on the earth.”

Did Noah really live to be 601 years old or is this a metaphor meaning God prepared him for many years to do the work for which he was created?

Great things take time to come to life and bear fruit.

You and I are a constant work in progress. Unlike our consumer-driven economy that throws away a one-year old, perfectly-fine smartphone because the models are released, God sticks with us.

He nudges us. He guides us. Sometimes he lets us get knocked down—way down—if that’s what it takes to get our attention, but he doesn’t discard us.

If your time has not come keep in mind how different the world would be if Noah got impatient.

Look up Ernestine Shepherd, born in 1936 she’s the world’s oldest female bodybuilder who didn’t start until she was 56!

General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. was also 56 when he lead our response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and Colonel Sanders was 40 in 1930 when he was offered a Shell service station, 49 when his restaurant and motel was lost to a fire just four months after buying it, and 62 when he franchised his secret recipe for the first time.

Now I’m not telling you to sit idly by as you wait for your ship to come in, but I am telling you that your ship will arrive when it is supposed to and it’s your duty to have your bags packed, your ticket downloaded, your destination known, and be on the dock, first in line to board so you can go about going about, which is the only way to…

Stay the course. Keep the faith. Endure.