Faith and Endurance

Endurance is certainly not something we like to have tested. Unless you are one of the weird-os that loved Cross County and running around in embarrassingly short shorts. Today the whole pace of life is fast, instant, on demand, live. Fast food feels to slow; we can’t fast forward through the commercials with our Tivo soon enough, even the search engines on our computers now does a live search as we type the letters in cause we can’t wait to get to the result. The current pace of life is hurried and blindingly fast, and that is why times that require strong endurance can quickly knock us off our feet.

James 1:2-4 is one of the passages that consistently gives my attitude and heart a hard kick in the pants.

James 1:2-4 (NLT)
“2 Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.
3 For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”

Many times I am praying for God to do this, and do that, and to take away hardship. When in reality I am asking God to take away the teaching and testing I need to be ready for anything.

But the phrase that has caught my eye today is in verse 3, “…, your endurance has a chance to grow.” When our faith is tested, meaning when our life can’t be lived in our own power – by choice or situation, there is “a chance” for our endurance to grow. It is not automatic. The growth ties back into our attitude of Joy in the midst of trouble.

I have definitely done this wrong. Several troubles or hardships that I have gone through, I have done the mumbling and grumbling. I have gossiped, I have talked behind people’s backs, I have had the wrong attitude, and it was certainly not a time of Joy. I think when you remove Joy you remove the opportunity to grow because when you are complaining and grumbling you have given up. You have given into letting an event, situation or person control you. Instead of deciding to have an attitude of Joy, I have given over to the worse case scenario of life lived in my own power. An attitude of Joy can really only come from fully trusting that God is in control, AND that he is faithful and good at being in control of our lives.

This thought reminds me of a quote from David Allen author of Getting Things Done, “The better you get, the better you better get.” He is speaking about that in terms of personal productivity and the corporate world, but how much could that easily apply to the building of our faith and endurance?

So what does it take for God to slow us down and teach us endurance? Well it takes Joy on our part, and it takes a peace that only comes from trusting in God with abandon. With abandon … hmm that sounds risky…