Enduring in the face of everything going on

Enduring the instability in the country right now feels like a tall task, if not a downright impossible challenge. But it can be done. Your first question might be, “Chad, how can you even say that?’, and it would be a fair question.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, I’m just as unsettled as everyone else in the country is right now. How could you not be? There’s more going on here than meets the eye, and what makes it so worrisome is that none of us knows precisely what that is.

The picture of instability as protestors storm the capital building

Well, we have a lot of folks who THINK they do. Just jump on any of the social media platforms these days to see if I’m right about that. You have people who are government policy experts, medical doctors, teachers, sociology experts, economic geniuses, and none of them have any training in their “fields of expertise.” You have to look in other areas to find truth.

Where do you go to find truth these days? I wouldn’t recommend any of the national news outlets, otherwise known as propaganda performers. They aren’t reporting the news, but instead are telling you what to THINK about the news. Instead, I recommend you try the Bible.

Oh, I know, referencing that book immediately turned you off, right? If it did, stick around. Can we at least look at my example of someone with perseverance and see what you think?

I learned something about the Apostle Paul that blew my doors off. What this man had to go through to spread the Gospel was mind-blowing. The amount of torture, hardship, abuse, starvation, betrayal, and other challenges he endured proved to me again and again for most of my life that the God he serves is real and powerful.

I read 2 Corinthians 4:16 that says, “Therefore we do not give up; even though the outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”

Can I tell you a little more about those “momentary light afflictions” he’s talking about? In his book “A Life Beyond Amazing,” Dr. David Jeremiah described Paul this way: “The Biblical story of the apostle Paul rivals any modern biography. He lived for just one purpose. In the first chapter of Romans, he identified himself as a “slave of Christ Jesus.”

In his second letter to the Corinthian churches, which were in an extremely wicked city, he gets more specific about what he endured to carry out his assignment.

An accurate representation of what Paul went through five times.

“I have…been whipped times without number and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long (and incredibly dangerous – just my two cents) journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claimed to be believers but are not. I’ve worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” (2 Cor. 11:23-27 NLT)

The Jewish Virtual Library (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) said floggings were given with a whip made of calfskin on the bare upper body of the offender. One third were actually given on the chest while two-thirds were given on the back.

I want you to think about that for a minute. He was given THIRTY-NINE lashes FIVE times! That’s 195 lashes combined. Think about what his back, chest, and even legs and butt must have looked like. The sheer number of open wounds and blood flowing like rivers. He would be barely alive when it was done because of the blood loss alone, and it would take a long time to heal. The punishment and the humiliation would be bad enough, but the physical pain would be unimaginable to anyone who hadn’t been through it.

Oh yes, and they beat Paul three times with iron rods. I remember being a batboy for my mom’s softball team many years ago. I was waiting for the play to be over to retrieve the bat at home plate, but I forgot to look up. The shortstop was waiting in the on-deck circle and took one more swing. The team’s best (and strongest) hitter accidentally caught me right in the abdomen and the breath whooshed right out of me.

It left a nice line of horizontal bruises across my abdomen. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to feel that pain over and over, just for preaching Christ. The scar tissue on Paul’s body would have been enough for two people in an “average” life, and I’m in no way kidding about that.

Ever been betrayed by people you thought were your friends? We’ve all been there, and it hurts badly. Paul was betrayed by people who professed to be Jesus followers, with at least some of those betrayals leading directly to the punishment I just described.

Paul was jailed for TWO YEARS after he was arrested in Jerusalem and appealed to Caesar. But he endured that, and never stopped his work. Not once.

What does this mean?

With everything we have going on in the world around us, find someone who inspires you to keep going. It’s okay to be nervous or even afraid. Even the bravest people you’ve ever known felt fear. Find someone who inspires you to be more than you think you can be.

Obviously, I’d like that person to inspire you to be Jesus. Look at what He did in Paul’s life. Look at what faith in Jesus helped Paul to overcome. These were obstacles that most of us won’t see in our lifetime (I hope).

There are going to be obstacles ahead. Hold on to your faith. God knew all this was coming and there is an endgame in sight. Read the end of the Good Book again. We win in the end.