When Tadesse came home in October, we noticed immediately how athletic he was. When he picked up a basketball for the first time, he made a basket within just a few tries. When he started playing football, we noticed that he can really throw the ball. Tadesse is a fierce competitor and wants to be in almost every sport, which is rather shocking to our family since none of us are especially athletic or competitive. On the other hand, Elijah mostly likes to read, play video games, or chat with people.
So when I thought about Elijah and Tadesse being in the same grade and with one being perhaps overly competitive, I was a little concerned for Elijah. I didn't want him to constantly live in the shadow of Tadesse. I wanted him to stand out in his own way. Within a few months of Tadesse and Biruk being home, Elijah challenged Tadesse to an arm wrestling match. It may sound dumb, but I felt relieved when Elijah beat Tadesse. It turns out that even though they both weigh the same, Elijah is stronger, but Tadesse has more endurance.
When I go to the gym (which isn't often enough), I find that I have strength to lift pretty decent weights for an average woman (though I still can't do presentable push-ups). Even so, I can't run a mile. I don't have the endurance. So in my estimation, endurance is different. To have endurance, it takes the stamina to breathe through the fatigue and sore muscles.
As I was driving home from Inwood this morning, I was thinking a little on those two ideas and how much more important strength and endurance are to our spiritual lives.
When someone speaks unkindly, we can have the strength in the moment not to snap back. It takes more strength to walk away, and it takes endurance to be kind to an unreasonable person day after day. It takes strength to get through the day when a loved one dies. It takes endurance to pull yourself out of the grief and to move on. It takes strength to take a child to the doctor for an unknown diagnosis. It takes endurance to spend months in testing and treatment.
At Augie, I took an advanced composition class where our professor insisted that we work on expanding our vocabulary. I still remember reflecting on the word fortitude, which means strength of mind in the face of pain, and attaching a mental picture of my aunt Marilyn who was battling terminal cancer at the time. While endurance and strength can be something that we exhibit through both good and bad, fortitude is something we specifically need for the bad times.
You know, some people think that when we give our lives to Christ, we have signed up for a life of comfort and complacency, that it's smooth sailing after one invites Christ into his heart. Many people's idea of God is shaken when they realize that He doesn't just fix everything for us, that our lives still aren't easy, but I submit that their ideas about God were mistaken, then, from the beginning. In the Bible, it says that we will be challenged.
Because when I think of my physical lack of endurance and my ineffectual breathing when I (try to) run, I find it interesting to consider another word: inspired, which means God-breathed. So, when thinking about those trials in life, when we are continuously knocked down, what if we considered ourselves pushing through (enduring) with fortitude (strength of mind in the face of pain) through the inspiration (breath) of God? What if, before we reach that moment of despair or defeat, we remember that we are never running alone? What if faith is the answer to it all?
That is my prayer for you today, dear friends. Whatever you are going through, whether it's the simple challenges of a day, the health problems of a loved one, troubles at work, a distant child, or a rocky marriage, remember today that this is not a race you are running alone.
Through the Holy Spirit,
your God,
your Comforter,
and your Deliverer—
the same Son who died on the cross and rose again,
the same God who divided the Red Sea for the rescue of His people—
are beside you and reminding you to not be afraid.