The Importance of Endurance: How to Stay with Things When Life Gets Tough

Do you “stay with” things, especially when life is difficult?

Recently, I went to the school where my grandson takes taekwondo. He was receiving his next belt. Three others sat in a different spot. They would get their black belt at the ceremony.

Three were kids. But the one that got my attention was an older gentleman, about my age. (I took notice because once took taekwondo when I was 45 years old. My wife thought I was crazy.)

As part of the ceremony, the black belt candidates told what got them to achieve their goals.

The kids thanked their parents. Then, the older man spoke with a slight Scottish brogue.

He started taking classes in 1999. Over the intervening period, life got in his way and he stopped. He thought about returning several times but never did. Finally, his teenage daughter began taking and begged him to start again.

He took the first step and enrolled in an adult class. Class members helped and encouraged, but he had to show up for classes, practice, and keep going. (I know it must have been more difficult with the passing years.)

But now, he stood before a group of parents, and his teary-eyed daughter, telling his story.

The Bible has two words in Greek. One is “patient” and the other is “endurance.” Paul uses them together.

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,” (2 Timothy 3:10, NIV)

Patience and endurance. The qualities of longevity, speak to living under a burden or a goal, even when life gets in the way or gets difficult. Patience and endurance stick it out when others quit.

As I listen to the human dimension of the black belt’s speech and Paul’s own testimony, two markers stick out. What does it take to endure patiently when it is easier to quit?

The first is inside of you. You have to believe in what you are doing. I have a reason, a purpose.

Friedrich Nietzsche said he who has a “why” to live for can bear almost any” how”.

For a Christian, the two elements stoke the inner fire. One is the result of heaven. But another is more subtle. We serve God who created, sustains, punishes, and rewards. We act because we want to please God. Heaven is only the result of the process of pleasing.

But the second contributing factor is others.

As I listened to the speech, I heard of classes urging when muscles tired or a daughter who begged and kept him going.

No one arrives at the end alone. Instead, we need more, we need others.

In the Hebrew letter, Jewish Christians wanted to retreat from the withering persecution. They could maintain their monotheism by hiding under the safety of the Jewish tent. The writer begs them to stay faithful to Christ.

The theological is important but the practical is essential. He tells them:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24–25, NIV)

We all need a spur, to prod, push, and poke us to keep going. We sing together in church to spur. We pray together to prod. We study together to polish.

No one gets to the end without someone else helping them.

Stephen Akhwari experienced it.

He was a marathoner from Tanzania in the 1968 Olympics. He struggled through the race due to cramps.

Then came the fall.

Akhwari was on the ground with a knee gushing from a wound. The ghastly gnarl of dislocation showed clearly. He would not stop his race.

He limped along. The other runners finished and the sun set. The stadium held a few handfuls of spectators. Then, a runner with a bandage on his knee flapping entered the arena and struggled with the final lap. It was Akhwari.

Why did he keep running?  He said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race,” he said. “They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”

God doesn’t put us on earth to start a life but to finish one. We spur on one another and grit under pressure but keep running.

It’s your race. Keep running until the end.