“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5 (RSV)
Whenever my brothers or I got hurt or injured as children while playing, the mantra my father repeated to us was, “You’re a Spartan.” He was from that area of Greece, known as Sparta, and Spartans are legendary for being highly resistant to the hardships of war, cold, hunger, thirst or pain. Partly legend and partly history, we learned that Spartan children were trained from an early age to be brave and enduring soldiers.
We are all soldiers in Christ and the endurance of faith is the spiritual version of the physical endurance of legendary soldiers. We need perseverance and endurance to stand firm in faith, during hardship and pain, especially when trouble comes in like a flood. We are engaged in a daily battle for our faith. We need the same endurance of a veteran survivor to succeed in the spiritual army of God.
I love to tell the true story of an 84 year old retired Navy seal, who survived for 26 hours in flood waters from the 2022 Hurricane Ian, in his Fort Meyers, Florida home. He was without food or water until he was rescued, and his own leather sofa became his lifeboat, while it floated on the flood waters in and around his home.
He had a pre-existing cardiac health condition, which for some, might have triggered a heart attack, but he remained calm. He said he was never afraid because he was a veteran survivor, trained to withstand deep water, hunger, thirst, cold or pain.
This brave 84 year old just waited patiently until rescue teams arrived and found him floating on his sofa. He was dehydrated and weary, but after a brief stay in a local hospital, he was discharged. A coworker shared this amazing true story with me, because that 84 year old is his father. I learned a valuable lesson from this Navy seal veteran, who had no fear of the flood waters because it’s what he had been trained for most of his life. Despite his age and poor cardiac health, he was a long time veteran of survival.
We are also veteran survivors of faith. We suffer various trials and our faith has been repeatedly tested by the deep flood waters of spiritual warfare, pain, hunger, thirst or cold. We have survived many spiritual hurricanes that rushed in and overflowed our place of comfort and stability. It’s not our first test, because God, who brought us through it before, will do it again.
Our training and preparation as survivors of faith, comes from years of testing and trials. When the flood waters rush in, we find a way to float on our lifeboat of hope and faith, until Jesus rescues us. We may be dehydrated and weary when our rescue comes, but we have gained the most valuable of all virtues, endurance.
No other virtue can be sustained without endurance. Faith, hope or love have little value if they do not endure. Endurance, through tribulation, is what builds character and character brings hope, and we all need hope. We are spiritual veterans of survival until the day Jesus returns, and we are being trained and prepared through every tribulation we go through.
Endurance is making us the veterans, Navy seals, Spartans and soldiers of our faith in Christ. We are led by the master of endurance, Jesus Christ, who brings us through all the flood waters in perfect peace.
Lord, give us the strength of endurance, so that all other virtues will follow. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen