A Call to Endure...

So my brother Christian wrote this and I thought he was right on, so I stole it and thought I'd share it here with you.

Where’s your breaking point? Everyone has one...regardless of who you are. It’s that place where life becomes too much to handle. It’s that time when your circumstances encompass you and it becomes hard to breathe. It’s how you feel when you feel betrayed by everything you’ve ever known and you have no place to turn. The point in life, where you give in to the pressures of this world and your eyes swell with tears that you can’t seem to hold in any longer. The flood gates give way and everything comes crashing down on you. The front comes down…the walls you build tumbles to the floor… the happy, go lucky face you put on every morning suddenly seems pointless and not worthy of effort. It’s harder to get out of bed and your day seems to be filled with that one consuming thought that you can’t seem to get past. Your world collapses. Everything you’ve held on to suddenly vanishes with the blink of an eye. Your Identity is gone. You come to question everything. Everything you thought you knew and had figured out suddenly becomes a twisted ball of confusion and unanswered questions. This place you’ve come to…this moment in time…it’s come to be known as your breaking point.

Being that my childhood, consisted of blast doubles and Granby rolls, all I’ve ever known and been taught is that your body can handle much more than your mind allows. Pain, sweat, and tears are all apart of reaching your goals (in life and sports). To overcome these circumstances, that seem to testify against all that is good and pleasing, we must endure. We are called to endure. Regardless of the current trendy pop song lyrics or the cliché, life is not about rainbows and butterflies. Don’t get me wrong, good times and God’s creation contains indescribable joy and enticement that my words could never serve justice in attempts to describe. But, during these desert times…we are called to persevere. Paul encourages the Romans to actually rejoice in these times, in times of suffering and utter despair. Wow…that’s intense. He writes, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us…” (Romans 5:2b-4).

Now, the question is: Why is it so hard for us to grasp the truth of these words? Our nature tells us the exact opposite of this statement. At the first site of pain or discomfort, we flee. We take off sprinting in the opposite direction, instead of rely on His peace and strength, which is more than enough and surpasses all understanding. However, Paul teaches us to endure these times because they make us stronger and prepare us for what lies ahead. It is a Call. A Call to Endure. We are Called to Endure hard times, times of utter despair and suffering, by rely not on our own strength, but His. I pray that I grow to fully understand this concept and that I endure (no matter the situation or circumstances), just as Christ endured on the Cross by taking on the sins of the world, because my Identity is in ChristOneLove. OneGod. OneWay.