“Blessed is the man who endures {perseveres} under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12
Are you at a place right now where you have contemplated quitting? I was at that place about two months ago with one of my jobs. Do you ever feel like there is too much on your plate? I don’t have all the answers you may need for where you are at in life right now, but I’d like to share some insight into what I read this past week and how enduring through trials is a powerful way to shape your character.
For the past 4 weeks, we’ve discussed courage, discipline, and vision. Endurance is also known as patience, or perseverance. Lets look at a few definitions. “The American Heritage dictionary defines perseverance as “steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness.” It defines endurance as “the act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress,” but in the second definition it defines endurance as “the state or act of persevering.” While they are synonyms and each word carries in it the idea of “continuance,” perseverance lays stress on a given course of action in the face of difficulty or opposition. Endurance perhaps more strongly adds the idea of continuing under resistance or the adversities of life, to carry on in spite of hardships.”
Endurance–continuing under resistance or the adversities of life. Let’s think about that for a minute. Continuing when things get hard, and I’m sure we’ve all realized that life can be hard.
From where we have come from in our series, in this I hope you can see that endurance sustains courage, endurance gives staying power to discipline, and endurance turns your vision into reality. Sometimes we want to quit being courageous–maybe standing up for what is right all of the time. Sometimes we want to quit practicing the delayed gratification it takes to be discipline–we don’t want to go to the gym today, or stick it out in our friendships. Sometimes we want to stop thinking of new ideas and visions because they never work out anyways. They sound great, but they are never executed. Occasionally though, it pays to consider the high cost of quitting. Many people live with scars or lingering wounds from having quit on something or someone and later on they ask themselves why they chose to give up. “But the answer is obvious: It is infinitely easier to quit than to endure.”
In a society that glamorizes quitting because it is full of instant gratification, its hard to practice enduring. Nowadays we demand overnight solutions, success, growth, strong relationships, and even spiritual maturity. When you watch TV, you see this giving up mentality all too much. Here’s a scenario–“things are tense at work. The employee is disagreeing with the boss. Nerves are snapping as the background music builds. The camera comes in tight on the employee and shows the veins popping out on his forehead. A moment of silence, and then his voice proclaims, “I quit!” The music crescendoes wildly as he storms out, slamming the door behind him. Here’s another one–a husband and wife are disagreeing. The tension builds. At the peak of anger, the wife suddenly slaps her husband across the face, just as the cymbals crash. She slams the door and leaves.”
We don’t stop to think that the person is now out of job, or that the husband and wive’s son has to grow up in a divorced family. People quit too much now a days, but the only way to build endurance and grow your character is to push through quitting points. If you play football, you know what a quitting point is. It happens on the 50th up-down when your legs are burning, arms are in pain and your mind is screaming give up. If you run, you know what that quitting point is. It’s the last 100 meters of a 400 meter race where you feel like you are going to fall over because you are in so much pain. It happens at work when the pressure is mounting and it seems unbearable and you just can’t stand it. It happens in an argument with your spouse, or friend when you strongly disagree about something and your emotions are going through the roof and all you want to do is give up, walk away, and ignore that person. Pressing past quitting points happens in learning to building good character, and even in our walk with God.
We must remember our key verse…Blessed is the man who endures. The lights and stardom in society shouldn’t be focused on the people that give up on marriage after two months,(many examples of those) but on those who grit their teeth and say, “With God’s help, and all that’s inside of me, I’m going to press on.”
The rewards and joys that come from pressing on are very rewarding. The second part of the scripture says, “because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him”. Sometimes though, I think letting something go is necessary to grow. I believe that if God releases you from something you will have a peace about it. I don’t believe peace means a calm river with birds chirping. I believe peace is given in the midst of the storm. It’s when you’re on the ocean, waves tossing you back and forth, thunder and lighting all around you, but still inside you are OK and you know you are suppose to be there.
I’d like to share with you something I faced a few years ago when it came to quitting/giving up.
Three years ago I had the opportunity to go to Disney World to participate in the Disney College Program. I was assigned to a fast food position…not a princess :), but i decided to go anyways. The college program would have lasted nine months. It was so exciting going to my favorite place in the world to work, but to be honest with you I never had a peace about it. I got there, went through training, met some great friends, and got to go to the parks for free! Everything seemed great, but something just wasn’t right. In the first month I was there, I had gotten bit by a spider, and was sick for about two weeks. After that, I came down with another cold and there were bed bugs in my bed! I was seriously contemplating leaving. If any of you know me, you know that Disney is one of my favorite things out there. This was my dream job. Not working in a fast food restaurant in tomorrow land, but working for Disney had been something I always wanted to do. Why would I want to leave? While I was there, someone from home asked me if I would regret the decision to leave. I thought and prayed about it and realized I wouldn’t. A month after I arrived, I decided to go back home. There were some other reasons I had left, but the main reason was I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. Someone once told me that if we push God enough, he will give us what we want. When that happens, we aren’t always inside is perfect will for us, and things are more likely to go all over the place. But when we “trust in the Lord, with all of our heart, and lean not on our understanding, He will make our paths straight.” Sometimes we are put somewhere we don’t want to be, or somewhere we never thought we would be, but we have to trust God in it because He is going to make everything work out. You see, I was making my own plans for my life, I wanted to work for Disney, I wanted to get away and do more with my life, but I knew that isn’t what God wanted for me. It took me falling down a few times to realize it.
If you are at a quitting point right now, count the cost before throwing in the towel. In Proverbs, it says to seek wise counsel. Talk to someone who may have been in your place when they were younger. Know that God will also honor what we are going through when we endure. He will give you peace about it if you are supposed to leave your job, school, a church. If you don’t have that peace, wait. Sometimes hasty decisions put us back, rather than helping us go forward. Enduring trials and hardships builds character. Remember though that ultimately, the decision has to be made between you and God.
Make a play-
Time Out:
1. If you are contemplating quitting, do you have a peace about it?
2. Have you sought wise counsel from someone?
3. Would you regret your decision if you quit?
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