Victory by the Inch

Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more. – Louis L’Amour

Reading this line by Louis L’Amour, I am reminded of General Patton’s standing order that his troops were always to gain ground and never to retreat. As Patton (played by George C. Scott in the movie) said, “I don’t like to pay for the same real estate twice”.

I wonder if that isn’t how God sees your life and mine in the larger scheme of things. “The strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory of life is won; the song of triumph has begun …” (Victory, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina). If you know this song, adapted and arranged by W.H. Monk (no relation to the television detective), you know I left out a key word – one which will not normally be heard in Lent, and which won’t make its return until Easter. Be that as it may, the plain fact of the matter is that the war is over, and there is no need to pay more for what God has already won. That is good news, indeed.

However, before one breaks into too much singing, dancing, and celebrating, one must understand that there are still “mopping up operations” going on, and those operations include us. We aren’t the people God wants us to be yet – not by a long shot.

We are still lazy (some of us); we are still egotistical (some of us); we are still envious of others (some of us); we are still gluttonous and lustful (some of us); we are still calling the shots with insufficient input from God (some of us); and we are still unwilling to place our lives before God to make of us what he knows we can be. In other words, many of us are reluctant to let God be God. We want to stay in control. We want to stay in control of our feelings, our emotions, our lives, and our wills.

I could go on and on, but you get the point – we’re frail, fragile, and finite human beings. We are, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, “humble little (people) with much to be humble about”.

Some may look at their lives and despair of all the work that needs to be done, or where even to begin to make any headway towards holiness. I know I shouldn’t even have to buy clothes, being covered as I am with fluorescent orange construction cones, and wrapped like a mummy with yellow caution tape. Still, I guess that maybe the key to our faith is the idea that God looks to us for progress, not perfection. Perfection is in God’s job description and not in ours. That, too, is good news.

One of the things I like best about the concept of “progress, not perfection” is that it eliminates the futility of striving for the unattainable, or the frustration of the unobtainable. God didn’t give us the Ten Commandments so he could have the joy of laying down the Law when we messed up. Rather, Law was given as a sign of just how much he loves and cares for us.

When our children are young, we teach them to look both ways before crossing the street, don’t we? We teach them to buckle up when they get into the car, and we teach them to not take drugs, smoke, or drink (even if we may not be so pure in those areas ourselves). Our goal isn’t to be hypocritical, but to share some of what we have learned: that life is better when you pay attention, exercise caution, and minimize the toxins you put into your system. We learned many of these lessons the hard way, didn’t we?

So it is with God’s laws. Many of us will be reviewing some of those laws this Sunday when we go to Church and recite the Ten Commandments as part of our liturgy, or hear them in the reading of the first lesson. We need to remember that they are commandments, not suggestions, but their value isn’t in pointing out how far short we have fallen, but to see where God is leading us.

He has given us life and freedom, for which we give God eternal thanks as he transforms our lives and our characters. We are called to honor those who brought us here (remembering we didn’t get here on our own); we are to bring life to others, not destruction; we are to be faithful, honest, and true; and we are to be content with what we have, for all we are and all we have is ultimately from God.

Knowing that should keep us humble as we inch our way forward in this, our valley. Let’s worry less about the Miles, and put more joy into our Smiles. Peace.