In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tackled the commonly held stereotype that students from Asian countries are better at math. Gladwell explains that they aren’t inherently better at math, but that cultures that have a tradition in the tedious and laborious work of wet-rice agriculture produce students with the fortitude to sit still long enough to find solutions to time-consuming and complex math problems. Translation: Asian students aren’t better at math. They just keep working at it when others would quit.

Sometimes, we look at other people’s lives, and we want what they have. We want the marriage they have. We want the business they have. We want the talent they have. And we think that either God just blessed them more than he blessed us, or they got lucky. But what is probably more true is that it didn’t come any easier for them than it would come for you. They just kept working on it when you never started, or when you quit somewhere along the way.

In Joshua 6, we see the incredible story of the battle of Jericho. God told Joshua the plan, “March around the city one time for six days, and on the seventh day, march around it seven times, and after the seventh lap, the walls will fall down and you will take the city.” God told Joshua, but Joshua didn’t tell his men. The instruction to the men was, “March. And keep marching until we take the city.” It was God’s plan all along to give them the city, but not until the seventh lap on the seventh day.

Maybe God has a plan for you too, but you’re just on lap one of day two, lap one of day five, or even day seven, lap six. Just because you haven’t seen it come to pass doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. You just haven’t taken enough laps yet.

And that person over there that you’re comparing your life to? You want the marriage they have, the income they have, the title they have, the joy they have, the peace they have, but you haven’t walked the laps they’ve walked. You walk your laps, trusting that God has a good plan for your life, and watch what he will do. Each lap you walk, you’re one lap closer to where God is taking you. So take another lap!