A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about an encounter we’d had with removing old wallpaper. Such encounters are often testimonies to determination and persistence, occasionally involving opportunity for repentance, as well. Sometimes, the repentance is for the expressions of frustration. Other times, we repent of the attempt itself. Regardless of all that, a friend of mine who has dedicated himself to excellence in both thought and spirit responded with a short testimony or two of his own.

He had stripped paper from an old high ceiling on one occasion and on another had spent most of a day trying to remove paper from a wall. After a series of courageous attempts, all ending with various degrees of humiliation, he spent more time in investigation than in instigation. His conclusion was this: he’d spent the day trying to remove wallpaper that wasn’t wallpaper; it was paint!

At the conclusion of his sharing, he’d invited, or perhaps, challenged me to make some use of his experience. I’m always glad to substitute someone else’s experience for my own, particularly in the cases of less than pleasant experience.

In this one, I am reminded that we may, from time to time, find ourselves in the sublime pursuit of some goal or another that seems to elude, evade and otherwise overcome our finest efforts. We should not forget that in some of those situations in which it seems that what we are trying to do is quite impossible, there may be a simple explanation. It may, indeed, be quite the truth that what we are trying to do is an impossible thing. Sometimes, wisdom is the better part of valor and the much better alternative to stubbornness.

And in those finer moments when we find that we simply have no choice but to do the impossible, we must give due credit to determination and persistence. But I have found, in those finest moments of getting done what could not be done, it was faith that played the greater part.

H. Arnett
3/26/12