More than gold - is persevering worth it?
A popular analogy for describing the challenge of following Jesus is that of the athlete. The training and the winning of the race. Sometimes we get fixated on the Gold – going for gold, wanting to win, to succeed. Is that all there is? What about the ones who don’t win? There must be more than this, there must be more then gold.
“More than Gold” is a one-stop-shop to enable the UK church to engage with the 2012 Olympic Games. I love the name of the programme – More than Gold.
I want to look at what the bible says about perseverance and about how we are challenged to persevere, not just to win, but to win more than gold.
A South Korean Grandmother has passed her driving test at her 960th attempt. For three years from April 2005 she took it every day for 5 days a week, before slowing her pace to twice a week. “I wanted a license so I could take my grandchildren to the zoo,” she explained. (Sept 2010). That’s perseverance.
By and large we tend to think of persevering as being a Good Thing.
Medicine is a Good Thing too - but you only need it when you are unwell. Perseverance is needed when there is something with which you need to persevere. When perseverance is out and about, also out and about, lurking in the neighbourhood somewhere, is trouble. However, perseverance is not about getting rid of the trouble but of gaining through it.
Perseverance is a Good Thing because it enables us to finish the race, complete the task, achieve the goal, win. And provided that race, that task, that goal is also a Good Thing, a worthy aim; then perseverance to reach it is to be commended.
Hebrews 10:19-39
This letter is aimed at Christians. People who had discovered the good news about Jesus, received His forgiveness and decided to follow Him. It is about persevering. But as we read this, ask yourself, what is the point of the perseverance? Why are we meant to persevere if it is not to just get rid of troubles?
V.36 tends to get the focus of our attention – we persevere in order to get what God has promised.
But it is much more than just getting the result, it is about more than gold. This passage is identifying what happens when times get tough. The danger is not that we feel down or disheartened. It is not about always saying everything is great and being perpetually cheerful. It is about recognising that when times get hard the temptation is: to let go of our faith.
When we are encouraged to persevere it is not just about keeping going in a difficult relationship or coping with poverty or putting up with pain and illness. It is about handling the mind games that the enemy plays with us – causing us to doubt our faith, doubt whether God loves us, doubt whether what He promised is true.
Perseverance is about a process as much as it is about an event.
An athlete at a race event v training process
Jesus follower at an event v process of daily life
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Event
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Process
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Encourages decisions
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Encourages development
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Belief rises
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Doubts emerge
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Motivates people
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Matures people
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Calendar issue
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Culture issue
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Easy
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Difficult
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An example, not prescriptive:
- An event leads you to decide to follow Jesus
- In the process you start learning to read the bible and pray
- An event challenges you to put Jesus first in your life
- In the process you learn to give money and time in serving
- An event teaches you about the Kingdom of God and the power of His Holy Spirit
- In the process you persevere through failure as well as success in praying for the sick
- An event causes you to decide to trust Him with your whole life
- In the process you learn trust through the loss of work, illness, someone letting you down, disappointment with your life
There are events where you make decisions and turn corners. But most of the time there is just process which needs perseverance and through doubt produces faith.
We don’t find that we need perseverance when the going is easy, when success comes without difficulty, when gold drops into our lap. We need perseverance at other the times. We are told to persevere precisely because it is not easy.
There are periods when life goes well. For some more than others and for some periods and not for others. But if you look back at the difficult times you will find that where you exercised perseverance, that is where you matured and grew and changed.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116
Getting back to the Hebrews passage: what the writer is driving at is that when times get hard, although we do pray, we don’t just expect circumstances to change to make life easy. God is less interested in changing our circumstances than in changing us.
Perseverance here is not about just keeping on going, it’s not a stoic putting up with pain and hardship. The perseverance we are talking about is the perseverance in your faith when your circumstances don’t make it easy.
Think of Job. His circumstances were awful and yet he had to work through real doubt, disagreement with friends and arguments with God. But he persevered in his faith.
This is the true heroism of Mother Theresa
Imagine being so in love with God and hearing His call so loudly that you gladly give up your career and home to serve him in destitution.
She wrote in her diary, “My soul is at present in perfect peace and joy.”
Then she left home and went to be a missionary. And God left her.
She wrote, “Where is my faith? Even deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. My God, how painful is this unknown pain?”
She didn’t choose to change her circumstances; she persevered through doubt and difficulty for decades.
We are tempted to think that if we persevere and pray hard God will change our circumstances. But that isn’t the deal and often that isn’t His plan. He is more interested in changing us than in changing our circumstances.
Winning and success is great – and indeed perseverance can be part of the package that leads to victory. But perseverance is more than just winning gold. It is about more than gold. If the gold is success or winning; more than gold is about becoming stronger in our trust and belief in God. Perseverance leads to a life that is strong in faith.
Four times Hebrews talks about persevering in faith:
V. 22 let us draw near to God … in full assurance of faith
V.23 let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess
V.35 do not throw away your confidence
V.39 we are not of those who shrink back but of those who believe and are saved
Perseverance is not about persistent prayer – trying to get God to change our circumstances, perseverance is about God changing us and growing our faith. It is about choosing to believe when circumstances tell us otherwise; it is about having faith when our minds are racked with doubt.
In a way it is like marriage – in a way it is not.
When I married Alison there was an event – our wedding when she and I made promises to each other. If in subsequent years our marriage went through rough patches – yes I persevered in practical terms but just as importantly I persevered in having faith in her. Because I believed her promises. Let me point out that although we have indeed had our difficulties, Alison has never given me cause to doubt her! My perseverance in faith in her has to change me because it forces me to have a certain attitude toward her and in the wake of that attitude comes the willingness to do what needs to be done to steer our relationship into calmer waters.
Now the analogy breaks down because we are human and God isn’t. Our promises do get broken, His don’t. With God we can persevere safe in the knowledge that, whatever appears to the contrary, He keeps His side of the bargain; he loves us and saves us.
What we need when things are hard is the faith, hope, confidence and belief that Hebrews encourages. Perseverance in faith, hope, confidence and belief in Jesus pulls us through the waves like a lifeboat. Guides us up the cliff face like climbing ropes.
More than gold looks like …
- Practicing the presence of God – developing a 360 degree, 24/7 awareness of loving God with you in every nanosecond of your existence. Learning to love Him when you are praying and worshipping but also when you are at the bus stop, stuck in traffic, doing the ironing, changing the nappy, putting out the rubbish, watching the game, drinking with friends, shopping in town…
- Learning to understand His will. Dismantling down our own deal making and listening to His offer and His design for us.
- Conforming our will to His. Moving from “this is the what I want and the way I think it should be” to have your way and let me know your wisdom.
- Although we live very comfortable lives and it is hard to do without, we think of it as our right – build up resilience so that you don’t need all the comforts of life. This is one area where fasting helps.
- Being free to enjoy what He gives without shame or guilt. If He has given you a gift or skill, enjoy it. If He has given you a nice house and big car, enjoy them. If you have a supportive, close family enjoy them. If you have good looks or an engaging personality be grateful.
- Recognise the times when you are in a place that requires trust and faith. Especially when things aren’t going well. When you are thrown back on God. Because relying on God is the best place to live all the time we must grab those opportunities with both hands and learn to trust.
- Increasing love for the unlovely. Finding that instead of your nose turning up, your senses being offended or your patience being tested, you are able to come alongside those who are not easily loved and offer compassion and grace.
- A character that grows more like Jesus week by week. I find it increasingly easy to slump into grumpy old man mode – we need to persevere in allowing our characters to become friendly, more likeable. Instead of oozing bitterness, envy, whinging, gossip we ooze hope, confidence, faith and belief.
Why persevere?
Short of money
When we have plenty of money; we can buy food to eat, pay the mortgage, run a car or two and buy new clothes occasionally, when life is easy, when we have won gold; we don’t tend to find ourselves relying on God for our daily bread. When the money runs short, we learn to trust God, our faith is tested and developed, we understand more about Him and about ourselves and we struggle with doubt.
It is not easy, our circumstances may not change, but if we persevere we will win more than gold, our faith will grow strong.
Illness
When we are in good health and when the NHS looks after us well. When illness is healed and we are restored we can be grateful for winning gold. When we fall ill and live in pain, when sickness and death come close our faith is tested again. We are taken into a greater understanding of Jesus’ suffering and into a greater awareness of the pain others experience. We learn to think of others when in pain ourselves. We learn to keep praying and hoping and we become aware of the designs of the evil one.
It is not easy, our circumstances may not change, but if we persevere we will win more than gold, our faith will grow strong.
Being badly treated
When everyone is good to us, we are popular and well liked; people doing us favours and we get good jobs and lots of support we are winning gold. It’s great that we have learned to be the sort of people others like and treat well. When we get offended or someone gossips about us. When an authority figure breaks the bond of trust we start to struggle with our relationship with God – will he be like that too? In these times we are forced to deal with grace and forgiveness. We persevere in thinking the best about others and in learning to love the unlovely. We rely on God to be the gracious and loving Father He promises to be.
It is not easy, our circumstances may not change, but if we persevere we will win more than gold, our faith will grow strong.
Outcomes
Sometimes we assess our spiritual life by means of the fulfilment of a contract - you know, “Well God thank you for saving me, I will give you my life and follow you and now please will you make everything turn out right.” As we plan our lives and look ahead we have all got great outcomes we want to see – marriage, great kids, grandchildren, early retirement, plenty of money, fame, recognition, playing for England. When things turn out the way we want we win and enjoy success. We say thankyou to God continuously for what He has given us. But when the outcome is different, when we can’t control the outcome – either by working hard or by praying hard – we need perseverance. Perseverance to trust Him, to be thankful whatever the circumstances, to believe in Him even when we don’t get what we want.
It is not easy, our circumstances may not change, but if we persevere we will win more than gold, our faith will grow strong.
When the athlete crosses the line sometimes they only just get there – they need encouragement and drinks and all sorts of help to get over the line. Others seem to sprint through the tape with a grin on their face and sheer enjoyment. Both can succeed, run the race, either could have won. But one is fit and strong, the other only just made it.
How are you going to cross the line? When the race is over and the Lord gives you the certificate for having completed it, are you going to be fit and strong and enjoying the race or are you going to be struggling and in difficulty?
I want you to persevere through the good times and the bad, not just in stoically putting up with difficulties, not in just persistently asking for your circumstances to change (although those are good things to do) but in allowing God to grow you and mature you. Allowing your faith, hope, confidence and belief to be tried and tested and to come out stronger and stronger.
Although he may not be willing to change our circumstances, He is always looking to change you. We are challenged to persevere. Not just to go for gold, to win, to get across the line, but to go for more than gold, to grow and mature our faith and confidence in Him.
David Flowers, 03/10/2010