On about rep 11 of a set of 15 exquisitely-designed tortures devised by my half-my-age-but-twice-as-buff trainer, I was struggling. He noticed. (He always does.) My arms were beginning to wobble a little, and I couldn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure my face was red.

“Come on,” he said, “breathe. Push through. It’s the last three that count.”

These are the sort of words you should never say to someone who “does words” for a living, and is in just enough pain to be a smart aleck. I immediately found the breath to say, “If only the last three count, let’s just skip the first 12.”

He laughed…and I did four more. When I finished the set, he said this: “You do the first twelve to get to the three that really count. So you need them all.” I think he may be too smart for his own good.

For the rest of that day (and a couple more) I’ve been thinking about those last three reps and his simple words. He’s a kinesiology student, so I’m sure he could explain in more detail than I would care to listen to just why that “last three” premise is so. But I’m a student of a different kind, so my mind went to another place altogether.

I thought about my Savior, who lived 30 years of relatively ordinary existence before He embarked on the three years that made the history books. Then I thought of the last few days of His 33rd year, and the final Friday, Saturday and Sunday that changed the world forever. They were grand. Glorious. Necessary! But without all that came before, meaningless.

We tend to think of life in terms of attainment – but I’m beginning to think it’s mostly preparation. And that faithfully doing whatever is required of us before “the three that count,” is huge. Moses lived some pretty mundane years on the backside of his father-in-law’s farm before he got the big job. Those years were preparation. Joseph languished in prison as an innocent man for quite some time before his meteoric rise to power. Every day in his lonely cell was preparation. They didn’t know when “the three that count” were coming – or even if they would come. But the “meantime” was making them ready.

I can’t say how this applies to you. I can only examine how it applies to me. But I can tell you this: Even when they hurt, I’m less and less motivated now to skip the reps that come before “the three that count.”

“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance becomes fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.” (James 1:1-4, Phillips)

© Leigh McLeroy 2005