The Tortoise and the Hare

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark." ~Charles Spurgeon

This morning I chose to stay home from church and stretch my rest day out just a little longer. It had been a rather hectic past three weeks and I needed that time to recuperate and rejuvenate in time to hit the next week running. As I listened to a sermon online, I heard the speaker refer to the quotation above and it started me thinking about the perseverance of that snail.

Do you know how fast a snail averages per hour? Here's a neat little comparison table:

                                       Snail                      Human                            Cheetah

Speed (mph)                 0.03                             3.00                                  74.00


Inches Per Minute         3.00                       1,440.00                           78,480.00


Feet Per Minute            0.25                         120.00                              6,540.00

I can just imagine the pair of snails, after they heard the bidding to enter the ark, beginning that slow arduous journey. As they slid along, the other animals bounded, hopped, jumped and ran past, and yet, the snails continued to glide. Maybe that's one of the reasons why it took so many years to build the ark, so the snails would have enough time to make it in! 

I've often felt like a snail. It seems like everyone else is a cheetah, or a gazelle, or a lion, swiftly flying to the ark of safety and crossing the finish line way ahead of me. Maybe they plod a little more, like the elephant or the bull, but they still reach their destination with time to snack on a bale of hay or two. Yet here I am, tiny, insignificant, gliding along as fast as I can go, but still barely making it. What matters, however, is not how fast I'm going. What matters is that I'm getting there. Perseverance is the key.