August 25, 2010 – The “E-Word” – Endurance

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything.  You’d have to know me well to know just how out of character that is for me.  Since I was a little curly-headed girl who knew how to make words, I’ve been writing.  Stories.  Feelings.  Journals.  Poetry.  Lyrics.  Whatever it was, it always came from my heart and through my hands onto the pages of a beautiful leather-bound journal (thank you, Shelley!), a scratch of paper, or the screen of a computer monitor. 

Lately, though, the words haven’t flowed through my hands.  They’ve flowed from my heart through prayer.  Prayers cried out in the morning, when the house is quiet and the only thing that rings in the air is the sound of my own voice calling out to Him, prayers offered throughout the day as I move through the acitivities of life, and prayers whispered in earnest as I wait for sleep to envelope me.

When I contemplated this change in me, I thought it felt like I was in survival mode instead of truly living each moment with fullness and purpose. 

Then it occurred to me.  This. Is. What. Endurance. Is. 

Endurance.  The dictionary defines it like this:  the ability or strength to continue or last, esp. despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina:

So there it was:  the reason that I found things difficult to define with words other than those offered to my Heavenly Father.  I am enduring this trial of the physical, but He renews my strength daily and there is a gratitude that I feel for that which I can only express fully to Him.  It’s beyond words.

I’m not unique to this experience of endurance.  There are many, many people who are enduring trials right now.  Endurance is covered in the scriptures.  It’s old as time, but comforting to know that God is pleased by how we choose to handle it and trust Him in the midst of it.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment [as seen from God's eternity], is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  (Romans 5:1-5)

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

“…count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience [endurance]. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  (James 1:2-4)

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-5)

Endurance isn’t a particularly engaging subject.  Everyone wants their problems solved in 30 minutes – you know, like the way a sitcom wraps it all up quick-quick.  But enurance is the long-haul.  The long road that nobody really wants to travel.

And yet . . . I am convinced that true faith and trust are learned on that long road.  Spiritual maturity is picked up along the way, too, because endurance isn’t for babies or wimps.  There’s good, difficult lessons to be learned on that long, long road, but oh boy, are they priceless!