Tag Archives: Endurance

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Do You Prefer Discipline or Neglect?

Running with endurance

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Affliction does not teach you about yourself from a textbook; it teaches you from experience. It will always show you what you love – either the God of all comfort, or the comfort that can become your god. Joni Eareckson Tada

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”  Hebrews 12:5-6

Life can seem to be trying and wearisome at times.  This summer is the third summer in a row that my wife has had to use crutches due to injury.   My own health issues have been more challenging this year.  I have added two new specialists to my list of doctors and will likely add a third by the end of the year.  And yet, despite our struggles and their related frustration and fatigue, we consider ourselves quite fortunate having learned over time that:  our situation could be much worse; our trials are truly “light and momentary”; and God is faithful to sustain us.  It doesn’t make the endurance an easy thing, but it does encourage us and provide a healthier perspective than our culture offers.  With this understanding, we further recognize that the discipline and sustaining grace of God is infinitely better than being neglected.

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Running the Race

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For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12:3

I went out for a run the other day and struggled through most of it.  Somewhere in the last half mile, I decided it might be wise to walk the remainder of the way home.  Shortly after I started walking, I met a young woman running in the opposite direction.  As we met, she cheerfully encouraged me to start running again.  As tempting as it was, I declined as my choice was not a matter of giving up but rather a bit of prudence for a few reasons: I have asthma and had forgotten to use my inhaler before running; my body is recovering from injury, and I’ve been pushing myself to meet various demands and have not been getting the rest that my body needs.  In better circumstances, the encouragement would have yielded the desired effect of the other runner. However, under these conditions, I had to allow reason to overrule desire.  As we endure in our walk of faith, we need be intentional as well. 

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Love and Grief

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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)

This was not the topic that I originally intended for this week’s post, but given a few divinely inspired events, my plan was changed.  As is my habit, I started the day with the “verse of the day” emails from Bible Gateway and KLove. The one from Bible Gateway was a portion of Psalm 139.  It is a favorite of mine for many reasons; one of those is that it was the last passage my parents read together on the eve of my mother’s death.  That circumstance coupled with the quote that I posted this week beckoned me to consider love and grief.

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Forty Year Stretch

Marriage, Commitment, Love and God

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“Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.  Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.  What will man do to me?’  Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”    Hebrews 13:4-7 

This past weekend Marie and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  While I would like to say that it was an entirely blissful 40 years, that would not be a true statement for two reasons.  We are both fallible humans still in the process of sanctification and there have been trials that have tested our faith in each other and our God.  However, what I am able to declare as true is that those 40 years have been blessed and I would, therefore, like to share a bit of our walk with you.

If you read from the beginning of Hebrews 13, you will see that Paul is asserting a list of essential behaviors for the body of Christ; they are in essence keys to living well.  Honoring marriage is just one of them.  However, if you look beyond the issues themselves, you see a few common denominators that allow for success in these areas. 

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Hope Defined

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  (Hebrews 10:23)

Hope is an integral part of our faith, but what is it really?    The world tells us that hope is a feeling or a desire.   That connotation hardly works in this passage.  How can one hold fast to a feeling or a desire?  Just because we have a feeling something will happen or we desire it does not make it a certainty.  The word that Paul uses in this passage is really defined as “favorable and confident expectation”.

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Renewal

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“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:2

My wife and I went to the gym on New Year’s Day to work off some of the holiday calories.  While there, I observed the eclectic mix of people.  There were familiar folks who, like me, are there on a regular basis; there were some who, like my wife, are less regular due to a busy schedule and used the holiday as an opportunity to get in a good workout; and then there were those who were clearly new to the gym, but who have most likely decided to try to exercise more in 2018.  After all, it is that time of year for resolutions.  We see the New Year as a time to start fresh and seek to improve our lifestyle in various ways.  However the success achieved will depend on the driving force behind the desire for change.  As Christians we’re called to daily renewal and transformation so that we live in a manner that is honoring to God and a blessing to us…it is a better way and a way to flourish.  No matter what changes we seek to make in our lives, for us to accomplish our goals or to simply live well, we need to maintain our focus in three areas:  our renewal must be God centered, we must be engaged and we must maintain a proper attitude.

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Thanksgiving Part 3

Thankful for Our Circumstances

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Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Most people are fairly comfortable being thankful for God’s provisions and for the people in their lives.  While we may not feel that our circumstances are quite as perfect as those depicted in Norm Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want”, we can generally muster a fairly strong attitude of thankfulness.  Certainly when we feel that things are going relatively well, we are filled with thankfulness, but what about when the times are tough.  Thanksgiving of 1992 I woke up in the hospital after having an ERCP the previous day.  I was in pain and groggy; I barely remember celebrating the holiday, let alone being thankful. 

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What’s in a Word?

Willful or Persevering?

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Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2

A couple of weeks ago I was traveling and stopped to get gas.  The screens on the gas pumps not only provided instructions, but also weather, news and entertainment.  As I pumped gas, the screen showed “the word of the day” and displayed the word “pertinacious”.  The definition that it provided was “willful” and the example of usage that it gave was “He became pertinacious in his old age.”  As I thought about this, I immediately thought about Solomon, Joash and Amaziah.  The connection came from a chart of the kings of Judah that I’ve been using to keep them straight.  These three are all listed as having done right in their youth and evil in their old age.  They started strong but their resolve waned as they aged.  As I investigated the meaning of the word further, I found that there are two very different meanings to the word.   The one that commonly comes up first is determination or perseverance.  However, it is the secondary definition that reflects willfulness.

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Pure Delight

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“I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”  Psalm 40:8

Sunday morning I was reading Psalm 40 and verse eight jumped out at me.  It says:  “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”  I had to ask myself if doing God’s will was truly my delight or if I have allowed distractions to keep me from true joy.  Not only that, but the word delight has been on my mind since then.  It’s not a word that I hear a lot these days.  When I looked up the definition, the definitions of both the verb and the known had a modifier.  It doesn’t mean to please or pleasure, but it said “to please greatly” or “great pleasure”.  Merriam-Webster adds that an archaic definition is “the power of affording pleasure”.

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Thoughts From the Beach Pt. 3

Riding the Waves

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“Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am.  Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.  Surely every man walks about as a phantom; surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.  And now, Lord, for what do I wait?  My hope is in You.”  Psalm 39:4-7

Last week I suggested to my wife that we go on a WaveRunner tour which we did.  To understand the significance of that statement, you need to understand that while I love going to the ocean, I’m not a fan of venturing very far out into the ocean.  When I do, I like it to be on a very large boat, e.g. cruise ships, ferries, etc. and I prefer to have land in sight at all times because, in a word, I’m fearful. 

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