PAINSTAKINGLY
A #TRUTHBETOLD BLOG
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 29, 2022
You ever find yourself stuck waiting on something or someone and you start contemplating your life choices? Well, this was one of those kinds of mornings...
Saturday started as any typical weekend morning...I had some errands to run and eventually found myself at the car dealership. After spending two hours and 47 minutes waiting for them to change the oil on my truck, my wife finally texted to check on my progress…
I responded to her inquiry about how it was going by saying “they are painstakingly slow”.
That got me thinking about the word “Painstaking”. The actual definition according to our friend Webster is “done with or employing great care and thoroughness.” This got me thinking about the make-up of the word. If you break it down to its simplest form it's two words: Pains and Taking. The definition of pain, again, according to good ole Webster, is “a localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress.” The word Taking is defined as “To get into one's hands or into one's possession, power, or control”. With all that in mind, the folks handling my oil change surely must have taken great pains…
By taking nearly three hours, this must have been THE BEST OIL CHANGE EVER. Meticulous detail must have went into this task, right?! Hardly! Not only did they not give their best effort, but I really don’t think they applied any effort at all. Both oil change reminder stickers were left on my truck, dirty hand and footprints were rampant, and they put in two quarts less than what is required. Where was their effort, what took so long? Maybe my patience wasn’t rewarded...maybe it was just painstakingly spent for nothing of value.
I started to think about other things in our lives and wonder what we sacrifice for those things that we assume we’re getting. We wait for those things that we attach value to. I know in my day job every computer system I use is painstakingly slow because we give up convenience for the assumption that our networks are more secure. I know that waiting on something that takes a long time would give one the assumption that you are going to get the very best of something (or at least the very best effort) to ensure that everything is perfect...after all, they are taking pains to complete the job. I know during the pandemic we endured a lot of pains for the hopes it would buy us some safety.
Well, this is less about an oil change, bad networks, or a waste of time, and more about the concept that, just because you work hard or wait long for a reward, the results are not always what you think they will be. Sometimes we go through great pains to achieve something that we feel will bring us joy, peace, or just a little bit of happiness. Sometimes those efforts are for not. Sometimes we achieve what we set out to and yet, we are still not satisfied. Sometimes, we find that we can’t enjoy what it is that we thought we wanted. There is a whole other blog we could write about the honor in sacrifice, and that will come soon enough, but for now, I’ll leave you with one final thought that I heard recently...just because something is hard to acquire does not mean it’s valuable.
Take a painstaking approach to the things you pursue, but know that just because you are working toward the reward you think you want in the end it may not be what you are seeking. Make peace with that and understand this: the process and the pursuit both are the path to growth and self-discovery that we need...and we may not even know it.
-Josh
Saturday started as any typical weekend morning...I had some errands to run and eventually found myself at the car dealership. After spending two hours and 47 minutes waiting for them to change the oil on my truck, my wife finally texted to check on my progress…
I responded to her inquiry about how it was going by saying “they are painstakingly slow”.
That got me thinking about the word “Painstaking”. The actual definition according to our friend Webster is “done with or employing great care and thoroughness.” This got me thinking about the make-up of the word. If you break it down to its simplest form it's two words: Pains and Taking. The definition of pain, again, according to good ole Webster, is “a localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress.” The word Taking is defined as “To get into one's hands or into one's possession, power, or control”. With all that in mind, the folks handling my oil change surely must have taken great pains…
By taking nearly three hours, this must have been THE BEST OIL CHANGE EVER. Meticulous detail must have went into this task, right?! Hardly! Not only did they not give their best effort, but I really don’t think they applied any effort at all. Both oil change reminder stickers were left on my truck, dirty hand and footprints were rampant, and they put in two quarts less than what is required. Where was their effort, what took so long? Maybe my patience wasn’t rewarded...maybe it was just painstakingly spent for nothing of value.
I started to think about other things in our lives and wonder what we sacrifice for those things that we assume we’re getting. We wait for those things that we attach value to. I know in my day job every computer system I use is painstakingly slow because we give up convenience for the assumption that our networks are more secure. I know that waiting on something that takes a long time would give one the assumption that you are going to get the very best of something (or at least the very best effort) to ensure that everything is perfect...after all, they are taking pains to complete the job. I know during the pandemic we endured a lot of pains for the hopes it would buy us some safety.
Well, this is less about an oil change, bad networks, or a waste of time, and more about the concept that, just because you work hard or wait long for a reward, the results are not always what you think they will be. Sometimes we go through great pains to achieve something that we feel will bring us joy, peace, or just a little bit of happiness. Sometimes those efforts are for not. Sometimes we achieve what we set out to and yet, we are still not satisfied. Sometimes, we find that we can’t enjoy what it is that we thought we wanted. There is a whole other blog we could write about the honor in sacrifice, and that will come soon enough, but for now, I’ll leave you with one final thought that I heard recently...just because something is hard to acquire does not mean it’s valuable.
Take a painstaking approach to the things you pursue, but know that just because you are working toward the reward you think you want in the end it may not be what you are seeking. Make peace with that and understand this: the process and the pursuit both are the path to growth and self-discovery that we need...and we may not even know it.
-Josh