Genesis 37:13

"Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I'm sending you to them.""I'm ready," Joseph replied.

Have you ever committed to something and then once you started, the task got harder?

Jacob had approached Joseph and told him that he was sending him to Shechem to check on his brothers. All of his brothers, except Benjamin, were pasturing the flocks at Shechem, or at least that is what Jacob thought. When Joseph was asked to go, he responded "I'm ready".

Shechem was approximately sixty miles from Hebron. Any form of travel during those days was challenging but Joseph said he was ready for the journey. Once he arrived in Shechem, his brothers had left and gone to Dothan, another fifteen miles. Joseph could have said "I told my father that I would go to Shechem but I did not commit to going to Dothan." That would have been partially true. He did commit to Shechem but he also committed to checking on his brothers. Since the brothers had moved, Joseph has to go some extra miles to fulfill his commitment.

An ordinary person would have gone to Shechem and back to Hebron once the brothers were not found. An extraordinary person goes the extra miles that are necessary to complete the task. It has been said that the only thing that an extraordinary person has that the ordinary does not is "extra." Whenever God gives us extra assignments, His plan is to make us extraordinary. You've got what it takes to go the extra miles.