GRADUALLY THEN SUDDENLY
“I’ve had a front-row seat to Batterson’s long vision for the church he leads and the city he loves. This book will inspire you to dream bigger, think longer, and dare to be different.”
—Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author, coach, and chaser of whimsy
“In a world chasing shortcuts and instant success, Gradually Then Suddenly invites us into the slow, sacred work of building a Christfilled life that lasts. With honesty, depth, and visionary insight, Batterson unpacks what it means to live with long vision, faithful obedience, and generational impact. Each chapter challenges the reader to trust God’s timing and embrace the unseen, often un- noticed, work of transformation. This is a deeply encouraging guide for Christians committed to legacy over urgency.”
—Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of Life.Church and author of The Benefit of Doubt
“Inspiring and encouraging, yet grounding and tangible, Gradually Then Suddenly is a guidebook to making the daily choices that lead to the creation of the fulfilling life with God we all deeply desire.”
—Annie F. Downs, bestselling author of That Sounds Fun
“I learn so much whenever I read one of Mark Batterson’s books. They are fun and enlightening, and I get ideas, wisdom, and inspiration from them. The stories range from the intensely personal to the historical, all pointing to self-evident Godly truths that hit home and apply to my life, occupation, and relationships. Gradually Then Suddenly will inspire you to grow. What a great message!”
—John Harbaugh, longtime NFL head coach of the Baltimore Ravens
“Leadership is all about playing the long game, which Batterson models in his life and writing. I was impacted by the prequel to this book, Win the Day. And this sequel, Gradually Then Suddenly, will challenge you to dream bigger, pray harder, and think longer.”
—John C. Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and coach
“I’ve been challenged and encouraged by Batterson’s books, including this one. Gradually Then Suddenly speaks to my reality as an Olympic athlete. Hurdlers and sprinters spend many years training for races that last mere seconds, but a gold medal is worth the blood, sweat, and tears. This book will inspire you to go after your God-sized dreams!”
—Grant Holloway, Olympic track and field gold medalist, three-time world champion, and world record holder
“Batterson’s writing has the rare ability to make you believe big and start small—and this book will push you to do both. I love the metaphor of ‘gradually then suddenly.’ It captures the key to the best (and worst) patterns in our lives and reminds us to keep moving in the right direction. Packed with fascinating stories, Biblical
truth, and Batterson’s trademark awe and wonder, Gradually Then Suddenly is a book you’ll be glad you read—and one you’ll want to share with others.”
—Carey
Nieuwhof, author, speaker, and podcaster
“Gradually Then Suddenly is an inspiring, motivating, and hopefilled road map for translating vision into reality. There are no empty platitudes here but rather a plan to cast a vision for your life that aligns with God’s plans and purposes. God’s vision doesn’t have a short shelf life—it is international and intergenerational. Thank you, Mark Batterson, for pointing us to disciplined perseverance as we pursue the fulfillment of our vision and dreams and for the sobering reminder that quitting isn’t about present-tense circumstances as much as it is about future-tense possibilities.”
—Dr. Crawford W. Loritts, Jr., author, speaker, and founder and president of Beyond Our Generation
“Mark Batterson has blessed us with powerful lessons from the Lord in Gradually Then Suddenly. This book will set your soul and heart on fire to seek and obey the voice of the Lord.”
—Kevin
Warren, president and CEO of the Chicago Bears
“The winding road to a God-sized vision is not for the faint of heart. Mark Batterson’s Gradually Then Suddenly will inspire you to sustain the gradual pursuit of your dream through parallels from historic moments, the wonders of science, and riveting and diverse testimonies. From well-known giants of the faith to those who are charting a new life from behind bars, Gradually Then Suddenly reminds all of us that it’s never too late to live a life worth telling stories about!”
—Heather Rice-Minus, president and CEO of Prison Fellowship
GRADUALLY THEN SUDDENLY
Mark Batterson
GRADUALLY THEN SUDDENLY
How to Dream Bigger, Decide Better and Leave a Lasting Legacy
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. (www.zondervan.com). The “NIV ” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica Inc.™ Scripture quotations marked (BSB) are taken from the Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. Scripture quotations marked (ESV ) are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (ISV ) are taken from the Holy Bible: International Standard Version®. Copyright © 1996–2025 by The ISV Foundation. All rights reserved internationally. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked (KJV ) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers. Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (www. lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked (NLT ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Dedicated to National Community Church.
When we began this journey,
I asked God for the privilege of pastoring one church for life.
You are the answer to that prayer.
Praise God for every single person who has found faith with their fingerprint on it.
Thanks to every single person who has invested their time, talent, and treasure. The best is yet to come!
GRADUALLY THEN SUDDENLY
PLAYING THE LONG GAME
“How did you go bankrupt?”
That’s the question posed by Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The rather infamous reply? Two ways. Gradually then suddenly.1
That’s how you go bankrupt, but that’s also how you get out of debt. That’s how you start a business, write a book, or run a marathon—and a thousand other things. That’s how entrepreneurs innovate, athletes win championships, and investors make bank. That’s how songwriters, filmmakers, and podcasters produce content. Regardless of craft or career, dreams don’t become reality overnight. Reverse engineer any success story, and I daresay it happened two ways—gradually then suddenly.
We love suddenly! Gradually? Not so much. But that’s about to change. You aren’t just beginning a new book; you’re beginning a new chapter of your life. I have no idea what dream you’ve set your sights on, but this is the day when decades happen.
“When you are born, you look like your parents,” said Dr. Crawford Loritts. “When you die, you look like your decisions.”2 Destiny is not a mystery. Destiny is a series of decisions—big decisions and little decisions, predecisions and daily decisions. And every decision has a domino effect. For better or for worse, we look more and more like our decisions every day. The good news? You are one
decision away from a totally different life. My prayer is that God would give you the clarity, the conviction, and the courage you need to make that decision.
Your life is perfectly designed for the results you’re getting. If you don’t like who you are or where you are, don’t play the victim. Play the long game! If you do the right things day in and day out, God will show up and show off. The pages that follow prove it. I hope the stories and studies that I share will inspire long vision, long obedience, and long legacy.
Is there a defining decision you need to make?
Is there a God-sized dream you need to go after?
What are you waiting for?
It’s time to get started on gradually!
AROUND THE WORLD
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, American swimmer Rowdy Gaines won a gold medal in the one-hundred-meter freestyle, setting an Olympic record of 49.8 seconds. How did he do it? Two ways—gradually then suddenly.
America boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, which means Rowdy Gaines trained for eight years—eight long years— for a race that would last less than one minute! Add up all the laps, and Rowdy Gaines swam a total of twenty thousand miles in fiftymeter increments. “I swam around the world,” he said, “for a race that lasted forty-nine seconds.”3
Most of us would love an Olympic gold medal, but very few of us are willing to put on a Speedo and dive into a freezing-cold pool at the crack of dawn every day for eight years. We want success without sacrifice, but there are no shortcuts. The phrase overnight success is an oxymoron. Success without sacrifice is short-lived. Don’t settle for fifteen minutes of fame. The name of the game is
long obedience in the same direction. That’s how you leave a legacy that will outlive you.
The essential thing “in heaven and in earth” is . . . that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.4
Friedrich Nietzsche applied this idea to art, music, and dance. If someone makes something look easy, I guarantee it isn’t. Effortlessness is evidence of extra effort. The principle of long obedience holds true for absolutely everything. Success is showing up when others give up. It’s no quit. It’s consecrating yourself to a cause or a craft or a calling—“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.”5
In the pages that follow, I want to help you go after God-sized dreams. By definition, God-sized dreams are beyond your education, beyond your ability, beyond your resources. You can’t do it, but God can. Show me the size of your dream and I’ll show you the size of your God. God makes big people by giving them big dreams. But the goal isn’t accomplishing the goal—it’s who you become in the process. Life is a journey, not a destination.6 My advice? Enjoy the journey—every age, every page, every stage!
Take a learning posture toward everyone and everything.
Cultivate a growth mindset during difficult seasons.
Adopt a GTS attitude—gradually then suddenly.
If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small. Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about.
Mike Miller was staring forty in the face when he picked up a copy of my first book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. “I felt something awaken deep in my spirit,” Mike said. “I can only
explain it as a dying and a birthing at the same time.” Mike didn’t even know he had fallen asleep, but the Holy Spirit woke him up with that still small voice: “Do you want to spend your forties telling stories from your thirties? Or do you want more stories?”7
Are you making a living or are you making a life?
Is your ladder leaning against the right wall?
Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?
This is your wake-up call.
IT’S ONLY IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT ISN’T
Almost everything is impossible, until it isn’t.
When I started training for my first marathon, it felt impossible. I could barely run three miles, and I’m using the word run loosely! My pace was slightly faster than a sloth. But the impossible became possible. How? Gradually then suddenly! I did seventy-two training runs over six months totaling 475 miles. Then, and only then, was I able to run a 26.2-mile marathon.
In the Lewis Carroll classic Through the Looking-Glass, Alice says, “One can’t believe impossible things.” But the White Queen pushes back, “I daresay you haven’t had much practice. . . . When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”8
Is there something impossible you’re believing for? You can’t pull it off before breakfast, that’s for sure! But if you practice half an hour a day, the impossible will become possible—gradually then suddenly. “There are three stages to every great work of God,” said Hudson Taylor. “First, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”9
A few years ago, I wrote a book titled Win the Day. If yesterday
is history and tomorrow is mystery, all you can do is win today. That book was built around a simple premise: Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough.
If you’re 5'3" and you want to play in the NBA, the odds are against you. But don’t tell me it can’t be done, because Muggsy Bogues played fourteen seasons. He had to train harder because he was smaller than his taller competitors, but that work ethic proved to be the secret to his success. Muggsy recorded 146 double-doubles during his NBA career. And even at 5'3", he blocked thirty-nine shots!10
There is an old axiom in martial arts: A black belt is a white belt that never quit. It’s true of everything, isn’t it? The way you accomplish anything is one day at a time, but here’s the catch—you have to do it for years on end. That’s what makes Gradually Then Suddenly a sequel of sorts. The rest of this book will solve for a simple yet exponential equation:
In the opening section, we’ll reimagine long vision. In the age of immediacy, long vision is a lost art. We want success to happen at the speed of light, but success happens at the speed of a seed. Long vision is daring to dream beyond the dash on your tombstone. It takes time and eternity into consideration. It’s doing what you do with the third and fourth generation in mind. Show me your vision and I’ll show you your future!
In the second section, we’ll reverse engineer long obedience. We want to do amazing things for God, but that’s not our job. God is the one who does amazing things for us! Our job? Old-fashioned obedience. It’s living for the applause of nail-scarred hands. Long obedience is the key that unlocks our potential and God’s
LONG VISION × LONG OBEDIENCE = LONG LEGACY
promises. It’s the key to miracles, the key to breakthroughs, the key to success.
In the final section, we’ll explore long legacy. Legacy is not what you accomplish. Legacy is what others accomplish because of you. Simply put, success is succession. It’s growing fruit in someone else’s garden. Just as we drink from wells we did not dig, we dig wells for the third and fourth generation.
THE BRACHISTOCHRONE CURVE
In 1696, a Swiss mathematician named Johann Bernoulli posed this question: Given two points A and B on a plane, what is the shape of the curve between the points that results in the shortest travel time for a frictionless ball acted on only by gravity?11
The answer is obvious, isn’t it? The shortest distance between two points is a straight line! Not so fast. The shortest distance doesn’t equate to the fastest time! Those are two very different things. The shortest distance may be a straight line, but the fastest time is called the brachistochrone curve. Roller coasters and skate parks use the brachistochrone equation to maximize momentum. How? They design a dip that leverages potential energy called gravity.
If you ride the roller coaster called life long enough, there will be ups and downs that tie your stomach in knots! We get discouraged by the downturns, but those dips are often blessings in disguise. They are when and where and how we learn valuable lessons. They also produce grit, which is a synonym for gradually then suddenly! The fastest path to your goals is not a straight line—it’s a brachistochrone curve.
When I was fourteen years old, the primary objective of my life was dunking a basketball. I wore elevator shoes to build my calf muscles and did box jumps for plyometric training. Trust me, I have the scars on my shins to prove it. I tried everything, but the
breakthrough didn’t happen until I broke my right ankle. Wait, what? Our high school had three floors and eight periods, which meant I was hopping up and down the stairs on my left leg—all day, every day—for six weeks! When I broke my ankle, I thought my season was shot. The reality? That broken ankle proved to be a brachistochrone curve! How so? My left leg got twice as strong bearing all of my body weight. The first time I dunked a basketball, it was with a cast on my right ankle.
“The Dip is the secret to your success,” said Seth Godin. Those dips come in lots of shapes and sizes—a difficult divorce, a dark night of the soul, or even a broken ankle. “The people who invest the time and the energy and the effort to power through the Dip— those are the ones who become the best in the world.”12
DREAM DEFERRED
I felt called to write when I was twenty-two, but I didn’t write my first book until I was thirty-five. Those thirteen years felt like forever! In my early thirties, I despised my birthday because it felt like an annual reminder of a dream deferred.
Ever felt that way?
Like your dream is getting further and further away?
Like you’re falling further and further behind?
It felt like I was falling behind the bell curve, but it was a brachistochrone curve! During that thirteen-year dip, I read three thousand books. That’s how I learned to write—by reverse engineering those books. I wrote hundreds of message manuscripts, I posted thousands of blogs, and I gained lots of life experience— good, bad, and ugly. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was gaining potential energy with every book, every sermon, every experience.
In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t write a book at twenty-two because I would have had to write a book at twenty-three to retract
what I said at twenty-two. Truth be told, my writing would have lacked gravity. Or maybe I should say, gravitas.
I’ve written twenty-five books in the last twenty years, which sounds fast and furious. More than ten million copies have been translated into dozens of languages, but it happened gradually then suddenly. There is no way I could have kept that pace without the brachistochrone curve—slower proved to be faster!
Technically speaking, Gradually Then Suddenly took four months to write. That’s the amount of time I allot to every writing season. But packed into these pages are thirty years of blood, sweat, and tears. I didn’t know it at the time, but I started writing this book when I was twenty-two. And that’s true of whatever dream God has put in your heart.
KINGFISHER
Many years ago, I was part of a gathering at Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Springs honoring the life and legacy of author and pastor Eugene Peterson. Eugene pastored in Bel Air, Maryland, for nearly three decades. He also authored more than thirty books. I had the honor of endorsing his final book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire.
Eugene’s happy place was a cabin in Montana that his father built in 1947. He accumulated a lifetime of memories in that place, but that’s also where his imagination ran wild. That lake house is where Eugene would rest and recover from the wear and tear of leadership.
At the Glen Eyrie Castle gathering, Eugene told a story I will long remember. He was sitting on his dock one day, watching a kingfisher do what it does. As the name suggests, few birds are better at catching fish. Eugene actually counted the number of attempts it took. “It took thirty-seven tries to catch a fish,” said Eugene. “And he’s the kingfisher!” Eugene paused, then asked a pointed question: “How many times have you tried?”13
Is there a dream you’ve given up on?
Is there a breakthrough you’ve stopped believing for? Is there is a miracle you’ve stopped praying for?
Most of us fail for lack of trying—we give up on gradually. When was the last time you tried something thirty-seven times? For the record, Eugene Peterson’s first book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, lived up to its title. “Seventeen publishers rejected it,” wrote Eugene. Even worse? “I was advised that it was irrelevant to the concerns of contemporary North Americans.”14
Fast-forward a few decades and Eugene’s paraphrase of Scripture, The Message, has sold twenty million copies and counting. That is rare air in the publishing world, but let me ask the obvious question: What if Eugene had given up after the tenth or twelfth or seventeenth rejection letter? He would have gone to the grave with his music still inside him. Or maybe I should say, thirty books still inside him.
When you experience seventeen rejections, how do you react? Do you second-guess yourself? Or do you try, try again? When you fail thirty-six times, do you give up? Or do you double down? Only you can answer those questions!
What if the Israelites had quit circling Jericho on day six? What if Naaman had dipped in the Jordan River only six times? What if the disciples had stopped climbing the stairs to the upper room on day nine? The short answer is nothing. They would have left those miracles on the table. Those miracles are very different, but they happened the same way. They happened two ways—gradually then suddenly.
FORTY YEARS IN THE MAKING
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, on October 25, 1881. He showed a proclivity for painting at an early age. According to his
mother, his first word was “piz, piz”—a shortened version of lápiz, the Spanish word for “pencil.”15 His formal education in art began at age seven, and Picasso didn’t put down his pencil until his death at the age of ninety-one.
More than four decades into his career—already a worldrenowned artist—Pablo Picasso was dining at a restaurant in Paris when a patron recognized him. That woman asked him if he would sketch something on a napkin for her, and Picasso obliged. Then he said, “That will be $10,000.” A little surprised, the woman said, “But you drew that in thirty seconds.” To which Picasso replied, “No, it has taken me forty years to do that.”16
Whether Picasso was joking about the asking price, I do not know. But every piece of Cubist art that Pablo Picasso ever produced was a benchmark in his body of work. Each piece was an evolution of creative expression.
Picasso’s magnum opus, Guernica, measures 11.5 feet tall and 25.5 feet long. That monumental painting only took him thirty-five days to produce—May 1 to June 4, 1937.17 But the imagery and allegory depicted in that painting took a lifetime to imagine. That painting would not have been the same if Picasso had attempted it in his twenties or thirties or forties. And the same could be said for whatever it is you do.
If you find yourself in a midlife crisis, can I alleviate some pressure? The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that life begins at forty! “Up until then,” said Jung, “you’re just doing research.”18 Of course you’re also earning compound interest along the way!
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world,” Albert Einstein is attributed with saying. “He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” Are you earning it, or are you paying it? And I’m not just talking about money! Compound interest applies to everything, including art. How do you earn compound interest? Two ways—gradually then suddenly!
It’s true of surgeons who perform the same operation hundreds of times. It’s true of lawyers who try similar cases in court. It’s true of baristas who pull shots, producers who mix and master music, sprinters who hurdle, and professors who lecture. It’s true of you and whatever it is you do.
There are no cheat codes spiritually, relationally, or professionally. No one gets a 20 percent discount on the ten-thousand-hour rule. Regardless of what you do, it’s probably going to take seventeen rejections and thirty-seven attempts! It’ll take patience and time—but if you fall in love with gradually, time flies!
Ready or not, here we go.
LONG VISION
In 1791, President George Washington commissioned a French architect named Pierre Charles L’Enfant to draft a plan for the capital city. That original map—the L’Enfant Plan—is now enshrined in a Plexiglas case breathing argon gas at the Library of Congress.1 That plan was the genesis of Washington, DC. More than two centuries later, I live in the revelation of that plan.
When I run the National Mall or walk our dog around the Capitol or navigate Dupont Circle, I’m keenly aware that my reality—the streets I drive on and the parks I play in—first existed in the imagination of Pierre Charles L’Enfant. And that’s true of absolutely everything. Don’t miss this: Everything is created twice! The first creation always happens in the imagination, which is an expression of the image of God. The second creation involves blood, sweat, and years.
When it comes to the city where I live, the first creation was putting pen to paper and creating the L’Enfant Plan. The second creation has taken two centuries of manual labor, physical material, and billions of dollars. The nation’s capital was built gradually then suddenly, but it started with long vision.
When L’Enfant presented his plan to George Washington, the sixty-eight square miles that comprise the capital city consisted of swampland and farmland. Few people saw much potential, but L’Enfant saw “a pedestal waiting for a monument.”2 L’Enfant had long vision, but he wasn’t the first.
On June 5, 1663, a farmer named Francis Pope acquired four hundred acres of land that included Jenkins Hill. More than a century later, Jenkins Hill would be renamed Capitol Hill. Francis Pope named his property Rome, which many people thought was a playful pun on his last name. But Francis Pope was a prophet in plain clothes.
It is told of this dreamer, that he predicted a greater capital than Rome would occupy that hill and that later generations would command a great and flourishing country in the new world. He related that he had a dream or vision, in which he had seen a splendid parliament house on the hill, now known to us as Capitol Hill, which he purchased and called Rome, in prophetic honor of the great city to be.3
That vision—the Pope Prophecy—predates the Declaration of Independence by 143 years! How did Pope see the far-distant future? The short answer is long vision.
Not long ago, I had the privilege of touring the Capitol Dome. We climbed 343 steps to the top of the rotunda where we got a close-up view of The Apotheosis of Washington—the 4,664-squarefoot fresco painted by Constantino Brumidi in 1865. Then we ducked through a door to the outdoor observatory where we were treated to a panoramic view of the city.
As I looked out over the city, I thought about the opening sentence from the book where I discovered the Pope Prophecy— Standard History of the City of Washington from a Study of the