Three more feet: staking your claim

A few weeks’ ago, I heard the story about a young man who staked a claim during the gold rush and mined the land for months. After his initial discovery, the vein appeared to dry up, he became discouraged and quit. He then sold his equipment to a “junk man,” who consulted a mining engineer whose calculations indicated the vein was just three feet from where the previous miner had stopped drilling. The expert was right. One of the most common causes of failure is quitting when we concede to temporary defeat—or give up three feet short of our vision. I can’t even count the times I’ve given up on a dream because I haven’t seen it become reality. Yet how do we know when we should persevere another “three feet” despite repeated disappointments—or when it’s time to let go? Perhaps it’s about keeping our eyes focused on the promises of God we’ve claimed until we hit gold.

What promise(s) have you staked a claim on?

Photo by Nadia Jamnik on Unsplash