“Endure.”

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

In December, a group of six men rowed across the Drake Passage—a 500-mile stretch of ocean from the southern tip of South American to the closest point in Antarctica. For 13 days straight, three men would row for 90 minutes while the others tried to rest in the cold and wet, and then they switched for the next 90 minutes. Forty-foot waves continually threatened to capsize the boat, the water temperature was only barely above freezing, and the men were delirious from sleep deprivation when they arrived. And yet, through all of the adversity, they endured. And they are the first men that anyone knows of to cross this particular portion of the world's oceans with only human power.

It is a remarkable story of endurance—one that shows what the human will and body are capable of when trained properly and pushed to their limits. And while it probably sounds utterly impossible [not to mention catastrophically miserable and nearly pointless] to most of us, the simple-sounding concept of endurance is one that is familiar to Bible believers.

Pages upon pages of the New Testament encourage Christians to endure through difficult passages of our lives in Christ. They are written to Christians who faced every form of persecution, and the encouragement was the same every time: Always keep walking with the Lord. Don't give up and don't give in. Hold fast to your convictions and follow him as king in everything. When it hurts, when others falter, when you doubt, and when the world hates you because you stand for the truth... endure. Keep rowing. 

"Let the treasures of the trial form within me as I go. And at the end of this long passage, let me leave them at your throne."  (Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer by Keith Getty)

- Dan Lankford, minister

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