Three Feet From Gold

There is a story that has been widely passed down among gold prospectors around the world. This story bears a captivating name: “Three Feet from Gold.”

Decades ago, a man named R.U. Darby from Maryland set off with his uncle to Colorado in the distant American West in search of gold. With pickaxes and shovels in hand, they dug tirelessly. After several weeks, to their great joy, they finally discovered sparkling gold ore. They carefully covered the mine and returned to their hometown of Williamsburg to raise a large sum of money to purchase mining equipment.

Soon, their gold mining operation was in full swing. When the first batch of ore was sent to the smelter, experts concluded that they might have discovered one of the richest gold veins in the entire Rola region of the American West. After just a few loads of ore, Darby was able to fully recover his investment.

But what Darby never expected was that, just as their hopes were soaring, something strange happened: the gold vein suddenly disappeared! Despite continuing to drill desperately in hopes of rediscovering the vein, all efforts proved futile. It was as if God had decided to play a cruel joke on them, turning their dream into dust. With no other choice, they painfully abandoned the mine that had nearly made them rich.

They sold all of their equipment to a local junk dealer and returned to Williamsburg with deep regret.

Just days after they left, the junk dealer had a sudden inspiration and decided to try his luck at the abandoned mine. To that end, he hired a mining engineer. After a simple survey, the engineer pointed out that the previous failure was due to the owners’ lack of understanding about fault lines in the gold vein. The assessment showed that the main vein of gold was only three feet away from where Darby had stopped drilling.

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As a result of this twist, Darby lived out his life as a modest farmer, barely making ends meet. The junk dealer, on the other hand, became one of the wealthiest men in the West.

(Source: Harvard Family Education)

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Commentary

We probably all have our own version of the “gold mine” that we are seeking. Perhaps it’s a happy marriage, or a successful career, or spiritual attainment. Whatever it is, it probably isn’t easy and requires perseverance. But perseverance mustn't be blind.

Sometimes, we might feel like we haven’t had any progress despite showing up and doing the work every single day. When that happens, it’s important to analyze our situation and confirm if we’ve gone in the wrong direction or if our method has problems. Getting an expert opinion would be very helpful here. If Darby had gotten the right expert to advise him, he might not have given up prematurely.

If we are going in the right direction and our method doesn’t have problems, then we just have to persevere. To give an analogy, when we boil water from 0 to 100 degrees, we can’t see much change from 0 to 99 degrees. But once the water reaches 100 degrees, there’s a breakthrough and the water boils. Although there might not be noticeable change in our daily accumulation yet, the temperature of our “water” is rising. We mustn’t give up before our water reaches 100, or else all the previous effort would be wasted.

What is a worthwhile challenge you’re working towards? How do you know if you're going in the right direction? How do you maintain faith and persevere?

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Weekly Wisdom #348