Endurance
(Part 2)
(Part 1 ends: Yes endurance, like the pearl, is a product of conflict, and yes conflict does hurt – but our God loves us too much to deprive us of the end result, namely that (we) … may be perfect (mature) and complete lacking in nothing” ([James 1:4]).
The problem is that when the night is dark, our difficulties intense and our burdens heavy, it’s easy to succumb to frustration. David was a man of great faith, but listen to this haunting refrain from Psalm 13:1, 2:
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
The questions plague us: Is God indifferent to my loss and pain? Why do my prayers seemingly vanish into the indifferent ether? Will the joy ever return? We may find ourselves asking, along with David, “How long, O Lord?”
But let’s read the whole Psalm. A number of David’s songs follow a pattern: they begin with perplexity, confusion or complaint and end with expressions of deep faith and profound trust in God. Listen to the penultimate verse of Psalm 13:
But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
For all his complaints, David knew that he was not speaking into an indifferent cosmos or an impersonal universe that had no thought for him. A thousand years later, another inspired man, James the Lord’s brother, urges us to pray to God for the same kind of wisdom (Jas 1:2-5); the wisdom to see that God is not indifferent to our pain. James urges us to pray for the wisdom to see that the Lord can use an illness, a burden and yes, even a grave to draw us closer to Him It is this wisdom which will guard our hearts against bitterness, resentment and self-pity when the dark days come and cause us to echo David again: My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
Rex
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