ENDURE or ENJOY?

Always look ahead.

There is to be found among modern day Christians, those to whom I like to refer to as, “Happy Christian Campers,” or “Smiling Sanguine Saints.” They like to set their melancholy, doomsday brethren straight by saying, “The Christian life is not to be endured, but enjoyed.”

The truth of the matter is, like most truths, both are correct. One simple proof text settles the argument, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…” Paul teaches in 2 Cor. 6:8-10, that the Christian life is a paradoxical one. It has both its ups and downs!

Some time ago I read, The Letters and Papers from Prison, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a young Lutheran pastor who joined the underground in hopes of overthrowing Hitler. The Gestapo hung him just days before the end of the W.W. 2. The doctor witnessing his execution said, “In all my years I have never seen a man die with such perfect peace.”

I was impressed that in his letters to his parents, he showed both joy and endurance. Writing to his mother from his damp prison cell, very weak and sickly, with little to eat, he tells her that in spite of all the discomforts, he could hear in the early mornings the little birds singing. And that he could now look forward to spring, and seeing the flowers begin to bloom from his one small window.

For any who are imprisoned by circumstances beyond their control, remember, spring comes immediately after winter. It is something you can look forward to. “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come.” ~ Sng. 2:12

by an Old Disciple

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