Run…With Endurance! (Part 2)

“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

—Heb. 12:1

The last phrase is often translated “run with patience.”  However, the Greek word used here is hupomone which I mentioned earlier, can also be translated as “endurance,” “perseverance,” or “fortitude”, suggesting it is not a passive stance that we are to take but one that requires significant effort on our parts.

It might more appropriately be translated “bear up courageously.”  It is used throughout the New Testament and is most often associated with suffering for one’s faith.  Paul wrote, “Because I preach the Good News I suffer, and I am even chained…and for this reason I endure everything for the sake of God’s chosen people, in order that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus (II Tim. 2:10-11).”

Enduring as used in both the Old and New Testament often refers to “standing under,” or “actively enduring.”  Endurance isn’t just tolerating or even allowing.  It requires an act of volition.

My son’s cross country coach made a statement about cross country competition that I had never considered, which might also be said of other races including marathons.  He said that unlike other sports there are no breaks, no timeouts, no half-times, no stoppage of plays.  Once you start the race, you run until it is finished.  Paul wrote to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (II Tim. 4:7).”  In Paul, there was no quit.

To keep running requires endurance.  I have never run a marathon and can only imagine how difficult it is to keep running for that length of time.  I have however been a follower of Christ for over 30 years and it has often felt like an endurance contest.  Along the way, I have seen others who have given up, who found it too hard, who felt it required too much, that they would rather be doing something else which offered more immediate gratification.  Are we willing to endure everything in order to run the race that has been set out for us to run?

I have been inspired by some of my patients who had to endure chronic pain.  One was Rhonda who told me every time we met, “I am still here.”  That meant that she hadn’t given in, though she had often thought how much easier it would be to just give up so that she could be pain-free.  She was referring to taking her own life.  But, she believed that, as long as God chose to let her live, there must be a purpose for her life.  And, she wanted to know what it was and see it accomplished.  She understood what it meant to endure.

We are sometimes called to endure, to remain steadfast, to bear up under.  It may be to endure some physical hardship, a mental or emotional condition, to stay in a relationship or at a place of employment.  It is often no small feat to be able to do so.  However, it is in fact what we are called to do.

Waiting or enduring may not seem so glamorous.  Regardless of where you are serving or to what you have been called, there may be times when you are asked to endure.  It is important that you do so.

Peter notes in his letter to the Christians in Rome that to suffer unjustly and to endure is looked upon by God as a gracious thing (I Peter 2:19).  We are given the example of Christ who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued “entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

When I was in high school, a popular slogan for Christians to have on their notebooks, on t-shirts, jewelry, and posters was “one way.”  Of course, it referred to what Jesus said of Himself as recorded in John 14:6 in response to Thomas’ statement, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  What we were saying when we wore the t-shirts or jewelry or hung our posters was that there was no other way for us to live except by following Jesus.

At one juncture of Jesus’ ministry, many of His disciples found His teachings too difficult to follow, and “many of them turned back and no longer walked with Him (John 6:66).”  Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Do you want to go away as well?”  Simon Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God (vv. 67-68).”

One way.  There really is only one way.  Rhonda would agree.  What about you?  Is there only one way with you?  Will you endure?

What are you having to endure?  Can you see how important it may be to endure, how God may be using that to accomplish His purpose?  If not, ask Him to make it clear that this is His will for you at this time and ask for the way “to endure it.”

It isn’t easy, but as Paul writes, God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it (I Cor. 10:13).”