Persevere

When my son Caleb was five, he found me in the kitchen one Saturday morning, trying to muster the energy to face the day's work. My head was down as I breathed in the steam from my coffee, and marveled at how quickly the sun had risen. Caleb rubbed my back, and said, "Dad, you're persevering, because youre keepin' on keepin' on. That's what persevering is." He gave me a big smile, and scurried off to play with his train set.

It was a mystery to me, when I first read Paul's letter to the Romans, how to reconcile the exhortation to perseverance ("But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it"), with its origin ("…we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope"). Paul seemed to be saying that we need perseverance to endure tribulation, yet it is tribulation that brings perseverance.

What I came to know, not long after becoming a Christian as an adult, is that Jesus wasn't kidding-in this world we will have troubles, whether we like it or not. Having suffered and been preserved in our faith, however, we have our character tempered, yielding hope-for what? That we are inching toward the finish line, by the grace and mercy of a God of second-and in my case, third and fourth-chances.

I don't feel any more wise or faithful than before I first felt the weight of grief on my shoulders. Sometimes that weight presses down, and I forget to hope. My children are extensions of my truncated soul in these times, coming in a whisper, or a giggle, or an admonition to persevere. Keep on keepin' on.