Get Your Reps In.
I started law school again this week. Wooooo.
But instead of the impending doom associated with another year of legal education that typically settles in around this time, I’ve been blessed with a remarkable sense of peace and comfort.
This deep peace and comfort were mostly manifested through my studies. For the first week of my Federal Courts course, we were assigned Marbury v. Madison. Marbury is a case that, amongst other things, is known for establishing judicial review of legislation in federal courts and that limits Congress from expanding the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction through legislation.
This Wednesday was not the first time I encountered Marbury v. Madison. In our first-year Constitutional Law class, we’re also assigned Marbury. The difference between reading it two years ago and this week was about 3.5 hours and a whole lot of understanding. While I think all court cases written before the 20th Century are nearly indiscernible, I flew through Marbury with a level of skill and comprehension that I thought was unattainable as a 1L. Even though I’ve been fighting for my life over the past two years, it was not in vain — I can read dense texts and find meaning in them in a fraction of the time I used to. I sit in class and follow each line of questioning clearly; the vernacular of the Court and the classroom is familiar to me. Dare I say, I even enjoy it quite a bit.
My newfound comfort with and enjoyment of my legal studies are not due to some supernatural force. I did not go to bed an average girl from Okeechobee, Florida and wake up Thurgood Marshall. Instead, every week for the past two years, I read court case after court case. Even when I struggled, and even when they made as much sense as the play call reference sheet quarterbacks wear on their wrists to the average kindergartener, I kept showing up and putting in the work. I got my reps in. The result? A 3L who has a lot more time for getting her 10,000 steps in a day and reading for leisure.
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Getting your reps in — at the gym and in the law school classroom — builds your ability to do really hard things. It doesn’t get easier; you just get better. You become uniquely equipped to do hard things when you continuously choose to do hard things. A bit tautological, I know. It’s as simple as it is circular: you become able to do hard things by doing hard things. And amazingly, the hard thing doesn’t look as hard anymore once you start doing it all the time.
Let us never grow weary in doing what is right, for if we do not give up, we will reap our harvest in due time. Therefore, while we have the opportunity, let us labor for the good of all, but especially for those members of the household of the faith. Galatians 6:9–10. NCB.
This principle is just as applicable to our faith. Trusting in God is one of the hardest things for my little human heart to bear. Believing that God has a good plan for my life, that He will make up for the years lost to the locusts, that I am beautifully and wonderfully made in His image, that all things are working together for my good, that justice and light will prevail — it’s hard for me, y’all.
My brethren, consider it a cause of great joy whenever you endure various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith will develop perseverance. And let perseverance complete its work so that you may become perfect and complete, and not be deficient in any respect. James 1:2–4. NCB.
But every time I choose to believe in the promises He makes to His people in the Bible and every time I choose to trust that God is exactly who He says He is, it gets a bit easier. The incredibly difficult task of allowing God to be God and allowing Him to reveal His goodness through my obedience and faithfulness becomes easier every time I do it. It doesn’t get any easier; I just get more comfortable doing difficult things. Especially when it comes to difficult things we are called to do.
Therefore, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom by faith we have been given access to this grace in which we now live, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we realize that suffering develops perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Such hope will not be doomed to disappointment, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5:1–5. NCB.
Your faith is a muscle that gets stronger every time you flex it. Every rep you do strengthens your ability to trust God and to faithfully follow Him. If you struggle — and we will all struggle — don’t be afraid to get back in the metaphorical gym. You have to keep doing the hard thing for it to become less hard to you.
This week, I pray that we get our reps in. I pray that we continuously do the hard thing of trusting that God is exactly who He says He is. I pray that when we experience strain and struggle in our faith life, we persevere knowing that our perseverance will bear fruit in our lives. I pray that through our examples we inspire those around us to engage in the hard work that leads to a life that will never end. Amen.
