On Monday, I attended a book club meeting discuss the second chapter of John Lewis’ book, Across That Brudge. The chapter is entitled Patience, and the congressman talks about the decades long process to get legislative changes.

I started off the process simply stating that I don’t have that kind of patience. Thirty-something years is too long to wait, I said. It hardly feels like progress if it takes that long.

It didn’t hit me until days later that progress is a process, and not the end result. It takes patience to get to the end result, but it takes propulsion to get through the day to day.

We tend to think of patience as inactive waiting, and sitting still. It can be that, but if you want to make progress, you have to be active. In the congressman’s case, they were not just sitting around waiting for laws to change. They were marching, they were having rallies and leading sit-ins. They weren’t’t just waiting. They were walking, too.

This week, I pray that you recognize that your patience has to be married to your progress. I pray that you are working while you wait, and that you never take your eyes off the end goal, whatever it may be.