In his book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates wrote, “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he was also writing in a more general sense. As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gates has also borne witness, both good and bad, to the monumental changes that can happen over a sustained period of time.
He’s right. We tend to have a minimal scope of vision. Perhaps it’s the society we have been raised in, one in which the demand for immediacy permeates everything from the way we want our food to the way we want our entertainment. We want “it” how we want “it,” and we want “it” right now. Consequently, we as a people have very little taste for the long game. But perhaps that’s not even forceful enough. If we can’t see the impact, if we can’t see the effect, if we can’t see the immediate change, then we conclude that there is no impact, effect, or change coming at all, and so we move on.
You can see it in all kinds of ways:
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- We abandon an exercise routine after a week because we don’t see an immediate change in energy level or waistline.
- We abandon a budget because we don’t have enough money right away to pay for the new TV we want.
- We abandon a book because it doesn’t grab our attention in the first three or four paragraphs.
The problem is, so much of life is about the long game.
Think in terms of parenting. As any parent can tell you, we spend about 90% of our time, especially in the early days, repeating the same things to our kids. And it quickly gets frustrating because nothing seems to be sinking in. The kids make the same mistakes, fall into the same patterns, and exhibit the same traits over and over again. As parents, we become frustrated. No immediate change—so we conclude it’s not working. But parenting, again, is not so much about single actions of teaching, grace, mercy, and provision, but instead about a long, sustained pattern of consistency. That’s where the power is.
It’s true in parenting, just as it is in exercise, in budgeting, and even in reading a book. And it’s also true in discipleship.
Here’s another simple example. Let’s say that we resolve ourselves to learn to pray in a more focused, sustained, and consistent way. Well, on day one, that’s very hard. And day two isn’t much better. Neither is day three, and by then, we start to get a little weary of the process, so we shelve the effort. If we do, we have fallen victim to this kind of short-sighted thinking. We have overestimated the short-term change but underestimated the long-term. And we would do well to think about how many of our attempts at true discipleship, whether we are thinking of our own spiritual growth or of someone else’s, have been put aside far too soon. Discipleship is not about short-term gains. It’s the long game. I’m reminded yet again of what Eugene Peterson said in his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:
“There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset. Religion is understood as a visit to an attractive site to be made when we have adequate leisure.”
If that is true, then one of the things we should be praying for most as we pursue Jesus is straightforward and clear: Perseverance.
It is the resolve to keep going. To keep going, not because it feels good. To keep going, not because we see immediate gains. To keep going, not because the road is downhill before us. No, it’s the resolve to keep putting one foot in front of the other, many times plodding along, because God is faithful. And we believe we will see the full result of that faithfulness only in a lifetime, not in a moment.
For more information about a sustainable and consistent discipleship strategy, visit experiencerooted.com/churchanswers.
Posted on November 12, 2025
Michael Kelley has served the Church as a pastor and resource publisher for 20+ years. He is the Executive Director of the Rooted Network and the author of several books, including The Whole Story for the Whole Family, Growing Down, and Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal.
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