About four or five years ago my church started a campaign to pay off our mortgage. The original goal, when the sanctuary was built, was to pay off the mortgage in ten years. There was still time, albeit not much, to make that deadline.
A plan was hatched. A dear sister, who was a founding member of the church, was selected to be the coordinator for this effort. Every week she'd come to the front of the church at the appointed time and she would lead us in the chorus of Victory is Mine:
Victory is mine,
Victory is mine,
Victory today is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
Victory today is mine.
She would then give us a progress report on how we were doing. She shared with us the personal sacrifices she was making to give her all to this project. She always ended her announcement with
"BY THE YARD IT'S HARD, BY THE INCH IT'S A CINCH"
I thought it was a cute catch phrase. If we focused on the debt in its entirety, the hundreds of thousands of dollars we owed to the bank, we'd lose heart. Our only other option was to just remain faithful in our weekly and monthly giving and we'd accomplish our goal in no time. She was trying to keep us from becoming discouraged and it worked! Before we knew it we'd paid off our debt and were celebrating at the mortgage burning ceremony.
That phrase means more to me now than it did then. The past two years have been the hardest of my entire life. An emotional roller coaster with the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. At times I have allowed myself to become discouraged. Inevitably I remember these words and remind myself to continue to move forward even if I'm only taking baby steps.
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