Steadfastness

"We praise ourselves for our mobility, meaning that we can move, without noticing that without any sense of ultimate meaning, without any Person to whom we grant ultimate allegiance even in the smallest acts of our everyday lives, we must move. We are under compulsion of perpetual mobility precisely because, without God, to settle means to acknowledge defeat, and to rest means to die within." (27)

- Anthony Esolen

"The verdict is settled on this one: looking towards our future home affects how we live now. It exudes a staying power. Knowing that we have a better possession and an abiding one launches us into radical ministry here. The incomparable glory that is to come gives us perseverance in our sufferings here. And this is what boggles the world's mind. You want to take my property? Fine. You want to take my life? Death is gain. The blaze of this steadfastness is fueled by the air of a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

So "be steadfast, immovable," Paul tells us. Stick to it. Abound in your work. Gaze upon what is to come, and hold fast today.

But don't do it as an attempt to recover a slipping virtue. There's a better motive: namely, God."

- Jonathan Parnell