Steps.

The heat billows from the earth below,
mingling, toxic, with fumes of cow manure and swamp.
We pinch our noses and push through,
the click and squish of shoes through mud muddled by whirling insects
assaulting our ears.
One foot, then the other--
one, then the other--
one, then the other.

The field looms ahead, seemingly endless and I want to throw my hands up,
swear to never travel this way again.

Is it worth it? Why am I doing this?
Then He says,

2 Corinthians 4:8-12

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.