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Summer is coming to an end and kids are going back to school online or in a restricted way while this pandemic and it’s social limitations drag on.
Professional, college, and youth sports have been altered, postponed, or canceled. Protests and civil unrest persist in many cities.
Back in the spring, we didn’t know how we’d get through a few weeks of this pandemic, and yet here we are 6 months later, persevering.
While I know life is tough in many ways for so many of us, including me, I also know we will get through it because we have...
The Ability to Endure
This idea comes from a book by Michael Chitwood (endurance athlete and founder of Team World Vision). One thing God has given all of us is an ability to endure, way more than we think we are capable of. We have before and we will again.
Michael also relates how usually on the other side of suffering there is something greater in store for us.
I find metaphors for life in the mountains. In early August I did a 4 day, 95 mile backpacking trip around Mt. Rainier on the Wonderland Trail, and last week I completed a 65 mile traversing mountain climbing trip in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.
During both of these trips, my group had to endure long, grueling climbs, sometimes in the heat, sometimes in the wind and rain, only to come out on top or through a pass to beautiful views of a mountain lake, a large glacier, a bear, or views of mountains many miles away. We were often far from civilization, remote, and far removed from the real world.
On the Wind River Range trip, we started on well-maintained trails with a challenging climb up through a 12,000 foot pass and were rewarded with a quick descent toward some beautiful mountain lakes where we saw not another soul. We were exhausted after 20 miles, but the reward of being at Upper Golden Lake was amazing!
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