Persistence > Talent
Maybe you don’t feel like you’re talented. Perhaps you feel like everyone else seems to have more talent than you. Maybe that’s why you keep giving up. Things get hard and you quit, you fizzle out, you give up. You figure if only you had more talent you would keep going. Maybe you think that those who succeed do so because they are more talented. Sure, talent plays a role in success, but I would like to suggest that persistence is actually a bigger factor in determining success than just talent, especially when it comes to the spiritual realm.
Mersenne’s Prime
In 1644, a monk named Marin Mersenne gets obsessed for a while with prime numbers.
You remember prime numbers? They're like the atoms of math, indivisible. They cannot be divided by any other number than themselves. So 3 is a prime number. You can only divide it by 3. Versus 4, which you can divide by 2, and you can get 2.
Remember? OK.
So Mersenne had a formula that he thought could predict prime numbers, OK?
Paul Hoffman, who wrote about this in his book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers.
He says that mathematicians had been searching for a formula like this to find prime numbers for nearly 2,000 years at that point.
Euclid, way, way back, 2,300 years ago, had proved that there's an infinite number of prime numbers. But he gave no formula for how to find them. I mean, they're easy at small numbers. We can do the math in our head. 7's prime. Nothing divides into it. 11's prime. If I give you a really big number, now you're going to have to start calculating, OK?
So this monk, Mersenne, came up with a formula. He creates this formula. And he uses it to spit out prime numbers. And one of the prime numbers that he said that he discovered was-- and this is going to sound a little bit technical-- 2 raised to the 67th power-- that is, 2 times 2 times 2 times 2, 67 times-- minus 1. And if that was confusing, all you need to know is this number of Mersenne's, 2 raised to the 67th minus 1, was famous among mathematicians.
That's how his paper ended. He said it was a prime number. This is 1644. So 250 years later, we're into the 20th century. I think it's 1903. And you have this mathematician that shows up at a mathematical conference that takes place here in the United States.
His name is Frank Nelson Cole. And he gave his talk a very unassuming title. He titled his talk "On the Factorization of Large Numbers." And he went to a blackboard. And he wrote, 2 to the 67th minus 1--
He says nothing. He says not a word.
He just walks over to the blackboard and just, writes that. And of course, everybody in the audience knows that that's the famous Mersenne prime. And he writes, equals, and then he writes out a 21-digit number—(2 67 - 1 = 147,573,952,589,676,412,927)
In other words, when you take 2 and then multiply it by 2, 67 times, and then subtract 1, that is this number, 21 digits long. 147,573,952,589,676,412,927. OK.
Then he moved over to a blank piece of blackboard. And he wrote down two numbers. One is a nine-digit number, times a 12-digit number. He writes those two numbers out. 193,707,721 and 761,838,257,287
OK, so that's two numbers that were sitting there on the board, multiplication problem, and?
And then he did the multiplication, just like the way they taught us back in second grade to do it. 7 times 1, he put down the 7. He went through the whole thing, step by step.
Just long multiplication. He says not a word. Everybody sits there silently.
Now, remember, the whole idea of a prime number is you should not be able to take two numbers, and then multiply them together and get a prime number as a result. It's supposed to be indivisible. If you multiplied two numbers together and you got this 21-digit number as a result, then that 21-digit number is not prime. And if Mersenne thought it was prime-- which he did-- his formula supposedly spits out prime numbers, this one of them, then his formula, 250 years old, is just wrong.
So, picture it. There's Frank Nelson Cole at the blackboard, slowly doing long multiplication, these two huge numbers. It takes a while. They're big numbers. It takes minutes, as this room full of mathematicians just watches him, lots of them, I'm sure, scrutinizing him for any math errors. He still has not said a word. And then, he gets to his result.
And indeed, it ends up being that 21-digit number, 147sextillion, 573quintillion, 952quadrilion, 589trillion, 676billion, 412thousand, 927. Now, the whole place erupts into applause. Legend has it, this is the first time at a math conference that people got up and applauded. And he just returns to his seat without a word.
And then later, someone asked him, "How long did it actually take you to figure out that Mersenne was wrong, that indeed this number has two factors?" And he said that he spent three years of Sundays working on this.
Three years of Sundays. Paul says these three years of Sundays were probably spent solving the problem by trying every possible solution-- dividing that huge number, 2 to the 67th power minus 1, by one number and then the next number and then the next. Three years of Sundays is 156 Sundays. For 155 of them, Frank Nelson Cole failed. Until finally, on the 156th Sunday, Frank Nelson Cole found a number that would divide it evenly, which, Paul says, is par for the course.
Notice how we don't talk about the researcher who spent two years trying to find what this gene did and then gave up or spent three years trying to find a planet outside the solar system and gave up, and someone else eventually did. Progress and discovery are often a combination of insight and hard work. We talk about the ones who did not give up, the ones who persevered and persisted.
(Adapted From This American Life: TRANSCRIPT 450: So Crazy It Just Might Work Transcript ORIGINALLY AIRED 11.11.2011)
Joseph in Prison
Genesis 39 ended with Joseph being thrown in prison after being falsely accused of attempted rape. But while Joseph was in prison God blessed him and he became the second in command in the prison (blog post with more details here).
Genesis 40 picks up the story with the addition of two men to the prison.
It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while.
- Genesis 40:1-4 NKJV
I believe it is worthwhile noting that even though Joseph had authority over all the prisoners who were in the prison (Genesis 39:22-23) Joseph did not use his position of authority to take advantage of the prisoners. Joseph did not “lord it over” them, it is almost as if Joseph had studied Matthew 20:25-28 in his small group meeting.
25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
- Matthew 20:25-28 NKJV
As much as I would love to expound on this theology of leadership I will have to leave this for another post, though I briefly address it on this post.
Joseph was in charge of everything at the prison but chooses to serve the prisoners. Joseph uses his position of authority to serve and bless those around him. This relationship opens doors for Joseph to further help those under his authority. If Joseph had focused on how unfair life was and how he had been mistreated and how terrible his personal position was he would have missed an opportunity to witness and bless those around him. Joseph did not waste his time in mourning over the injustice of his accusers, which had deprived him of his liberty, rather he focused on his present and future doing his very best to bless those around him.
5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation. 6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”
- Genesis 40:5-7 NKJV
Joseph has shown that he cares, he has earned the right to enquire about the wellbeing of those under his care and they feel comfortable opening up to him and sharing what is on their heart. Their willingness to open up to Joseph will allow Joseph to further minister to them and their needs according to his abilities.
8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.”
So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
- Genesis 40:8 NKJV
As the prisoners open up to Joseph he is able to witness to them about God, the true God! And those men were willing to open up to Joseph about what was happening in their lives.
9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
- Genesis 40:9-11 NKJV
The dream was complex and odd. I would not have been able to interpret this dream, but as Joseph had clarified earlier, the interpretations belong to God.
12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”
- Genesis 40:12-15 NKJV
Joseph interprets the dream, and he is so sure of the meaning of the dream that he even added a special request since he was talking to the cupbearer
“The cupbearer was an important official in the Egyptian court. Because of the sensitivity of his position—he personally served wine to the king—his loyalty in what was a perpetually intrigue-ridden household had to be beyond reproach. Ready access to the monarch could make a savvy cupbearer a trusted advisor and place him in a position of great influence. Egyptian documents testify to the wealth and power of such officials.”
The chief baker noticed how the cupbearer received good news and was motivated to share his dream with Joseph as well.
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
- Genesis 40:15-19 NKJV
Sadly the dream of the chief baker did not have a positive meaning. The commentaries I read did not agree regarding the details of the execution of the chief baker since the text is a bit confusing (death by beheading, hanging, impalement or some type of crucifixion) but they agreed that he would die and his body would be exposed to the birds.
“Thinking of his own two dreams, and realizing that God was still with him, Joseph sought to help the two dejected men in their perplexity. This desire to help others later proved to be the key to his own release from prison. Bearing his own unearned misfortunes with cheerful resignation and admirable fortitude, Joseph, by his friendly nature, was led to sympathize with other unfortunates, who lacked the inner strength that buoyed him up. It was not out of curiosity but with an earnest desire to assist those in need that Joseph offered the two men his assistance. At the same time he pointed them to God, his own source of strength and consolation.”
Joseph’s interpretation was correct and the dreams had indeed been revelations from God about what would happen in the near future.
20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
- Genesis 40:20-23 NKJV
As Joseph witnessed the fulfillment of the dreams he must have been reminded of the dreams that God had given him. I can imagine Joseph eagerly waiting for his freedom. Joseph had served and helped the butler at the lowest point of his life and surely he would remember Joseph now that he was re-established in a position of power and influence.
“[The cupbearer] had seen the interpretation of the dream exactly fulfilled, yet in his prosperity he forgot Joseph in his affliction and confinement.”
Joseph was completely forgotten. Notice how the biblical text repeats the statement in two different ways highlighting the plenitude of the forgetfulness. It will still be two years before Joseph leaves his current condition.
Joseph was talented, he had the gift to interpret dreams. Joseph had also received dreams from God, though he might have reason to question the origin or veracity of the dreams he had a young man. Joseph had every reason to become bitter, to give up. Joseph could have said
“I tried being good. I tried following God. I was good, I was honest, I was kind, I always did my best. And what do I have to show for it? I betrayed by those closest to me, sold as a slave, I was falsely accused and thrown in prison, I was forgotten by those I helped…”
If Joseph had decided to give up, I would completely understand. I believe I have given up on things for less. But Joseph seemed to understand that it was not enough to be talented. Joseph seemed to understand that persistence was greater than talent. Sure, Joseph was talented, but without persistence, it would not have benefited him much.
In Genesis 37:2 we read that Joseph was 17 when his father made him the coat of many colors. In Genesis 41:46 we read that Joseph was 30 years old when he finally stood before Pharaoh. So even though we don’t have exact dates or references to Joseph’s age at this point we can know that he spent about 13 years of his life as a slave or in prison. That is a long time to persist and persevere and press on. I wonder if Joseph could tell that during those years God was preparing him to rule one of the mightiest nations of the ancient world. I wonder if Joseph realized that because of his willingness to persevere, because of his persistence, God would use him to save the lives of many. I wonder if Joseph had any idea of how much power and wealth he would one day possess. Right now things were tough. Right now Joseph’s talent was not enough to make a significant difference in his destiny. Right now, all that Joseph had was persistence. He had to continue to trust God, to continue to do his best, to continue to learn and grow and care and bless, trusting that God was in control and that the dream that God had given him would one day come true.
But perhaps in your mind, you are arguing, thinking
“Sure, but that’s Joseph! He’s a Bible character. He is different. God gave him dreams and the ability to interpret dreams. But I am not talented like Joseph. It feels nearly impossible to persist in my situation.”
Well, I have another story for you.
Mary Jones
More than anything in the world, Mary Jones wanted to learn how to read. The main reason was her great desire to be able to read the Bible for herself. Like most people during the late 1700s, and especially in Wales, she only had access to the Bible when the pastor would read it at church once a week during the church service. But she was not satisfied with just a few stories once or twice a week. Mary wanted more, she wanted to read the Bible for herself. But there were no schools nearby to teach her how to read.
Finally, when Mary was about 9 years old a new school was started and it was only one hour away from her house! Mary longed to read the Bible and now it seemed like her dream would finally come true. She would wake up early so she could do all her chores and walk one hour to go to school. Mary was very poor. Her father had died when she was four years old and she was raised by her widowed mother. Her mother would go out and do whatever work she could at the neighboring farms and Mary would go to school.
Mary wanted to learn so much that she quickly rose to the top of her class. However, learning to read was only the first half of Mary’s dream. When Mary learned how to read she found a kind neighbor that allowed her to come over and read their Bible every weekend. Her kind neighbor lived two miles from Mary’s house. Mary would come over every weekend. Mary had heard some of the stories at church, but she found it so much better to be able to read the stories for herself. The Bible came alive to her, and the time would fly by. Soon, weekend visits were not enough. The hours spent at the neighbor’s house only fueled Mary’s desire to have a Bible of her own in the Welsh language.
However, there were very few Welsh Bibles and they were prohibitively expensive. So Mary began to save money and look for ways to earn money. She would do odd jobs, watch children for their parents, mend clothes, sell firewood, she began to raise chickens and sell the eggs. Mary spent six long years working hard and saving every penny she could. But this was not easy, sometimes some of her money had to be used to help feed the family. Many times Mary felt like it would be impossible to ever save enough money for her to have a Bible of her own. But after six long years, she finally had enough money to buy a Bible in the Welsh language.
Now that Mary had finally saved enough money sh had a new challenge to overcome. Welsh Bibles were exceptionally difficult to come across. They were very expensive, and there were very few of them. There were no Bibles that Mary could purchase in her village. However, Mary noticed that her new school teacher had a Bible, she asked him where he got it and he told her of a minister by the name of Thomas Charles who lived in the village of Bala, 25 miles away and had Welsh Bibles for sale.
Try to imagine Mary’s excitement! She had learned how to read, she had spent six years working and saving all that the could and finally had enough money to buy a Welsh Bible and now she knew where she could get one. So Mary began her journey, early in the morning she set off, barefoot, for a 25-mile journey over very rough terrain to the town of Bala. Her epic trip would be immortalized in history. Unknown to her she was also helping fulfill Bible prophecy.
When Mary finally arrived in Bala, it was late evening. Candles were starting to be lit. She knocked on the door of the house of the local minister who took her in for the night. The next morning he took her to see pastor Thomas Charles. Thomas Charles welcomed Mary and listened intently as she shared her story.
“I love the Bible,” Mary explained, “I have loved it my whole life, even from when I was much younger and would listen to the pastor reading from it at church. When I turned 9 they opened a school in my village and I was finally able to learn how to read. Now there is nothing I would love more than to have a Bible of my own so I can read it a much as I want whenever I can.”
Pastor Charles could hardly believe his ears.
“You walked 25 miles barefoot to buy a Bible?” He asked.
“Yes,” she said, “and I have the money right here!”
“How did you manage to get enough money to buy a Bible? I thought you said your father had died when you were young and that he had been a weaver, I don’t think your parents were very rich.”
“I worked very hard, I mended clothes for my neighbors, I raised chickens and sold the eggs, I gathered and sold firewood, I watched children, and cleaned and swept houses and saved every penny. And after six long years of working very hard, I finally have enough!”
The coins jingled softly in the purse she clutched in her hands.
Thomas Charles then turned to the other pastor and said:
“Mr. Edwards, isn’t it said that such a brave girl, such a smart and dedicated girl, such a consistent Christian who worked so hard and traveled so far just to have a Bible and I do not have one for her? I do not have a single Bible to spare and there is no hope of getting one either because the Religious Tract Society has decided to no longer print any more Bibles for Wales.”
“Do you mean to tell me that we do not even have one for this young girl?” the pastor asked.
“The few Bibles I do have were already promised to other people, I do not have any Bibles to sell to Mary, not even one.”
The words fell like heavy hammer blows on Mary’s ears. Her heart sank. She was devastated. She began to weep and then her body began to shake uncontrollably with heavy sobs. She could not stop weeping because of the thought of having to go back home empty-handed after a lifetime of wanting and waiting and studying and working so hard to be able to have and read God’s word. Her tears wet her cheeks and dripped from her chin. Mary could not stop weeping. Thomas Charles was moved deeply moved with compassion from the core of his being as he beheld Mary and pondered the tragedy of her story.
Pastor Charles got up from his chair and placed his hand softly on Mary’s head and said,
“Mary, you will have a Bible, no matter what. One of these bibles was going to a man who can also read English. So I will let him have an English Bible and I will give you the Welsh Bible that was intended for him.”
He went to his bookcase and got a Welsh Bible and gave it to Mary.
That day a very excited 15-year-old walked 25 miles home, hugging her very own Bible.
Pr. Charles was deeply touched by Mary’s story and in the year 1802, he went to a religious tract society meeting and told them what had happened. After he finished he asked the men there to consider starting a new society dedicated to printing and distributing Bibles in the Welsh language. During the discussion, as Thomas Charles made his passionate appeal for bringing Bibles to Wales in the Welsh language a Baptist minister named Joseph Hughes said that “surely a society could be formed for this purpose. But if for Wales, why not for the British Empire, why not for the entire world?”
That December day, the British and Foreign Bible Society was born. The society held its first meeting on March 7, 1804, and 700 Pounds were raised to begin printing and distributing Bibles all around the world. From God’s perspective this was a profound moment, for this was the catalyst for a global spiritual awakening opening the door for millions of people to have access to the Bible in their language. The moment had come for the fulfillment of Daniel 12:4
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
- Daniel 12:4 NKJV (bold mine)
One humble country girl with persistent and unshakeable faith paved the way for the whole world to read and learn about the love of Jesus. Not only that, but she also played a crucial role in the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.
When Mary walked the 25 miles to Bala in the 1800s, the Bible was available in only 67 languages.
By 1900 the Bible had been translated into 524 languages.
There were a total of 428.2 million scriptures being given out by international Bible Societies in 2014, including full Bibles, Testaments, Gospels, and other smaller scripture items. (source)
(I wrote this story by compiling information from several sources including https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfKGmXkqkk&t=1005s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5vUs0JDbc&t=1409s, http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/content/projects/mary_jones_story.pdf, https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/ )
If God used Daniel while he was a slave and while he was in prison. If God used a humble country girl. Imagine what God can do through you if you choose to persist?
God does not need talent, He is the one who gives the talent. What God needs from you is persistence. God needs you to not give up. If you persist, God will do amazing things. He wants to use you to bless others, to bring the good news to those who are living in ignorance. God wants you to be salt and light. We know it is His will. The question is, are you willing to persist long enough to accomplish God’s will in your life?
Sure, maybe you don’t feel like you have the talent you wish you had or that others seem to have. But I am not here to ask you about how talented you are, I am here to ask whether to not you are willing to be persistent.
