A Reminder to Practice Consistency

As I've been reminiscing recently on the memories of our month on the Big Island this time last year, this photo from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park came to mind. It hadn't been among my favorite captures from that adventure, but I decided to try a wide aspect ratio crop to accentuate the element I like most about it...the stark contrast between the solid, dark lava rock and the fluid, light blue sea water crashing thereupon. I have a new appreciation for it now, and not only because of all the life metaphors with which it has been flooding my mind.

These cliffs are being gradually eroded by the relentless assault of the sea. Day by day, countless waves pummel the lava rock cliff faces with great force. The impact of each individual wave is imperceptible, but their cumulative impact over time is powerful enough to devour what appears to be an indestructible body, even an entire island composed of lava rock.

As I considered this, my desire to be consistent with the various areas of discipline to which Ive committed myself was renewed. These areas include, but are not limited to diet, exercise, prayer, and personal growth. In each of these areas, I make multiple choices every day. For each individual choice, there is no immediate perceptible result (though sometimes a single choice may be the crossing of some threshold following hundreds of previous related choices, by which there is then some tangible result). Over time, the effect of these seemingly fruitless choices accumulate until the motivating goals are eventually realized. Consequently, every contrary choice I make only serves to delay these realizations. If I make enough of these contrary choices, I can prevent those realizations altogether. I need to remain consistent despite the lack of immediate feedback, trusting that the results will come, resisting the momentary temptations to choose comfort over growth which are also sure to come.

 

This is a different view of some of those same cliffs. In this one, you can see the Hōlei Sea Arch, itself the result of those relentless waves eroding the cliffs, created approximately 550 years ago according to the National Park Service. One day, this arch will collapse entirely into the sea as a single wave finally breaks it, but as I've explained, that result will really have been the cumulative effect of countless waves over many years; It will have been the result of consistency.