The Three That Count

The Three That Count

By rep twelve of a fifteen-rep set of exquisite tortures devised by my half-my-age-but-twice-as-buff trainer, I was struggling. My arms were beginning to wobble, and I’m sure my face was turning red. “Come on,” he said. “Breathe. Push through. It’s the last three that count.” I was in just enough pain to smartly reply, “If only the last three count, why couldn’t we have skipped the first twelve?”

He laughed, and I did three more. When I’d finished, he said, “You’re doing the first twelve to get to the three that really count. So you need them all.” For the rest of the day I thought about those last three reps and my trainer’s simple words. He’s a kinesiology student, so I’m sure he could explain that “last three” bit in more detail than I would care to hear. But I’m a student of a different discipline, so my mind went in another direction altogether.

I thought about my Savior, who lived thirty years of relatively ordinary existence before he embarked on the three years that made the history books. Then I thought of the last few days of his thirty-third year and the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday that changed the world forever. They were grand. Glorious. Necessary! But without all that had come before, they would have been meaningless.

We often think of life in terms of attainment. But in truth, it’s mostly preparation and perseverance. Moses lived some pretty mundane years on the back side of Jethro’s farm before he got the “big job.” Those years were preparation. Joseph languished in prison as an innocent man for years before his meteoric rise to power. Every day in his lonely cell was an exercise in perseverance. Neither man knew when he’d get to “the three that count,” but the intervening time was making them ready.

I’m less and less tempted these days to skip the reps that come before “the three that count.” Even when they hurt. The last three may change my body, but the unheralded, ordinary first twelve will most surely change my heart.

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.

James 1:2-3, PHILLIPS