I read Seth Godin‘s work almost daily. Sometimes I have to cram previous posts all into one day but seldom do a couple days go by that I haven’t caught up or at least read something he’s shared.
And a couple weeks ago, I read a blog post that hit me. You can find it here.
The beginning is what caught me. Here is exactly what he said:
“The most underrated scene in the Wizard of Oz is the hallway leading up to the audience with the great and powerful one.
One of the reasons that Oz is seen as being particularly great and powerful is that it’s just so much trouble to get to see him–and that hallway is the perfect metaphor.”
This hallway in that movie always freaked me out as a kid. I can’t truly explain to you how many times I had to see this movie but it was almost every time I saw my grandmother for more than a couple hours, this movie was watched. This movie as well as this other movie.
And that hallway put into perspective how great and powerful this Wizard of Oz truly was. Historians have said that you would fear the great kings of old by how much they had built up for themselves. Alexander the Great had huge cities built in his honor. You can look at the kingdoms of the great Pharoahs and many, many others. These people had huge hallways (or even better, a Sphinx) that showed off their power.
But the great thing about this quote is that the things of greatness have some type of journey to them. They aren’t normally just stumbled upon. There is a walk up that mountain or some type of effort on the part of the people involved.
Take Moses hearing God speak through the burning bush. That event was cool and all but he really didn’t get to meet God until he got up early and climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai. He had a journey to take him to the face of God. And I’m thankful he took those steps and didn’t give up.
The journey there better be worth it. Because sometimes that’s all we will get. Part of the awesomeness of whatever you’re trying to achieve is the fire that you have to walk over to get there.
I hope you’re encouraged to keep pushing forward because the prize is great. Especially if the journey is tough.
blindly pursuing life 