Becoming a Pressed Penny

In Haymarket--far into the wilderness of the D.C. South Mission--there is a trail that crosses the train tracks. If you bring a penny and leave it on the tracks, when you finish the hike you can search for your naturally pressed penny.

Our little excursion didn't go as planned. We left our pennies on the train tracks and proceeded to get lost in the Virginian jungle. Without a map, we took two hours to circle the peak, getting more frustrated by the moment. Instead of one trail, the mountain seemed to be crisscrossed by spaghetti noodles.

Eventually, we headed back down the mountain, giving up on reaching the summit; we'd completely forgotten about the pennies until we crossed over the tracks, and then we eagerly began to search among the rocks.

Soon, we found our pennies. While we'd been walking in circles, our pennies had flattened, becoming the perfect souvenier.

This is life. It's so easy to become frustrated with not attaining one goal that we forget about our success in another area. In a general confernce talk titled, "Our Goal is Perfection," the speaker makes this wise statement:

"The pursuit of excellence should be a major work of our lives . . . While it is true that we cannot attain perfection in a total sense in this life, it is also true taht we can attain perfection in many specific areas of activity. Furthermore, if we fail to do what we can and should do in this life, we may deprive ourselves forever of the opportunity to to do those things later on and thus lose great eternal blessings" (William H. Bennet). 

We have to do what we can when we can, and let the Lord take care of the rest. Over time, we too will become the pressed penny, our lives a witness of God's handiwork.