Patient Endurance. 25 Years and Counting!

Patient Endurance. (25 years and counting!)

This week my husband Barry and I celebrated 25 years of us; wedded bliss, commitment to love, a matrimonial stronghold, ever present joy in the making, twenty five years of togetherness. Praise God!
To celebrate we chose to have an adventure so Monday morning we were dropped off in Pittsburg with our bicycles to bike the 150 mile Great Allegany Passage to Cumberland. In making preparations for this journey I kept sensing in my spirit that something would take place in the physical realm that would minister to my spirit. Day One proved that to be true.
On Monday the word endurance entered my mind. I never did look it up but I know it to mean – to press on, to tolerate, to keep on keeping on, to not give up. I was certain this was the spiritual lesson God had for me as well. It is exactly my address now as I wait for His miracles to manifest in my life. Romans 8:25 but if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently. Endurance – Monday we got off to a slow start. Barry drives a hand cycle and it seemed to creep along that first day. We rode for nearly seven hours grabbed some dinner and dropped into bed exhausted. Tuesday was up hill for the first four hours. I don’t know where his endurance came from – God must have dropped it out of heaven into his lap – but Barry rose to the occasion and pumped that bike without a break uphill for four hours. When we reached the top of the hill things leveled out including his energy. The rest of the day was difficult. We took some time to snack and replenish and that is when we realized throughout the journey of enduring it is important to stay encouraged, energized, pumped up by whatever means God gives us: His Word, His Spirit, His people! I won’t go into what happened but if you have ever had the tendency to ‘take matters into your own hands’ then you figure out how the rest of the day went! Or perhaps you will read about it in a future article entitled “Putting to death my tendency to take charge and control!” It is promised to preach to every women! Wednesday we began to apply the discipline we learned from Monday and Tuesday. Stop every two hours to snack and keep your energy level up. This is an endurance run not a sprint. We must move at a good pace but not without moments to replenish our being. Remember to apply what you have learned – discipline yourself with the wisdom you have and then you will be able to maintain, to keep on, to go the distance. Thursday was a short day. Good thing because my body was exhausted. My gluteus maximus and minimus was numb. My shoulders ached a bit and my get up and go musta got up and went. Yes, Thursday is when I had the revelation of what Paul calls Patient Endurance. Throughout the week I had been seeking God for greater understanding of endurance and throughout the scriptures when you read the word endurance more often than not it is accompanied by the word patient. As we moved through our fourth day on the trail I felt a case of the crankies coming on. Gripping and complaining was waiting at the door of my lips and that is when the Spirit of God revealed to me a lesson in patient endurance. Any one can endure something but it is how we endure it that sets us apart. We can endure with murmuring and complaining or we can endure the trials and hardships and difficult moments in life with patience. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit therefore to endure my journey in a way that would please God I had to press into the Spirit of God that lives in me for some patience. That I might patiently endure what was starting to look like something I would rather not finish. Something I really had lost all interest in. In that moment of discouragement, exhaustion, fatigue, disinterest it was the Spirit alive in me that brought me through. Oh the spiritual lessons we can learn from our physical circumstances. And today is Friday – our last day out on the trail. I think we are pushing 32 miles today. I Thessalonians 1:3 is my verse for the day, it says that endurance comes from hope and my hope today is to be like God. I want to be a finisher – someone who completes what he sets his mind to doing. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Barry I would have been done with this journey on Wednesday. I don’t like feeling exhausted! Amen! But the one another’s kicked in and has caused me to press on, to endure. Barry has prayed for (me) one another, he has encouraged (me) one another, he has built (me) one another up in the journey. Today, because of our week of celebration together we will look more like God as we have pressed into Him not for just a week but for twenty five years of weeks, one day at a time going back to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our journey. Together we have endured, patiently. II Corinthians 1:6 says that unity produces endurance. Too often when the tuff stuff comes our way our female tendency is to run and hide, to stay under the covers out of sight. But that is not what God says will assist you in winning. Your victory, our victory comes in unity. Therefore, give the one another’s a try. Give them and watch them come back to you and help to keep you enduring through whatever God allows to come your way – for your good and for His glory. I gotta go. Time to hit the trail. Journey on sisters, life is too short to be sitting on the sidelines. Embrace your adventure and endure to the end.

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