July 25

Called to Endure

            Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.  And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.”

            “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”

Revelations 14:12-13

           So much of this life that we live is about endurance.  So much of our faith…so much of our parenting…so much of our success in this world is simply about whether we can endure or not.

            Endurance is “the power of making it through a difficult process or situation without giving way” or “the capacity of something to withstand wear and tear.”  Endurance is not flashy.  It is not sexy.  It is not something that you put on your resume. 

            Endurance is the rock that is continually beaten by the waves.  It is the marathon runner who will never be called the “fastest man alive.”  It is the parent who gets up at 6am to go to work and provide for their family even though they were up until 2am trying to get their child to go to sleep.  It is the woman who prays that her husband will find Jesus every day for decades without seeing any changes.

            Endurance takes time.  It is not something that is resolved in a day, a week or even a year.  Endurance takes resistance.  It could be physical resistance or spiritual resistance or emotional resistance, but there is always something that is pushing you to quit.  Endurance is boring.  When I was a competitive swimmer, the part of the season that I always hated was the beginning because it was stamina work.  It was long sets of long swims designed to build up our endurance.  Sprints were fun; speed was fun.  Long distance swims that were intended to see how long you could make your body ache before it just gave out were not fun.  They were boring and painful and slow.  I knew that I could go faster…but if I did, I would not be able to complete the entire distance.

            Endurance is about pacing ourselves.  We have heard that life is a marathon, not a sprint.  That is true for parenting as well.  We cannot be going full throttle 24 hours per day and 7 days per week without burning out in a matter of days.  We cannot hold down a full-time job and multiple part-time jobs and take classes and take our kids to therapy and homeschool them and see our friends and clean the house and clean the child and volunteer for dozens of things and have amazing quiet times with Jesus and fix our cars and tend to our gardens and…everything else.  We cannot do that all at the same time.  Maybe when our kids get older.  Maybe not.

            Our kids require a lot of attention right now.  There is pressure to get things right with them right now.  The right diet, the right therapy, the right medications, the right mix of interaction and independence.  They need it quiet or loud or both at the same time.  They need food that will help them grow but that tastes good and does not attack their gut or their taste buds or their nostrils.  They need someone to carry them and change them and exercise them and play with them and read to them and help them self-regulate.  This is not a one week or one month or 90 day commitment; this is our life.  We cannot solve all our challenges in a single concerted effort.  This is a long-term race.

            We are called to endure which means that we are called to pace ourselves.  We are marathon runners who are carrying our kids on our backs, not sprinters.  If we remember that…if we plan for that, then we can finish the endurance race with a smile on our faces and joy in our hearts.  Others may run faster.  That’s ok; that’s their race.  We know who we are and the precious cargo that we carry and that if we endure and just keep moving, we will win this race that we are on. 

  

A moment to reflect:

What can you incorporate into your regular schedule that will better equip you to endure for the long-haul?