At our house, we have a little, almost liturgical response that’s taken hold and is being used more and more frequently. When in the middle of a project that isn’t going so well, or when looking ahead at a crazy week of events and need-to-get-dones, we are getting into the habit of saying: “Rule #1 - Don’t freak out.” All the kids know the rule and say it to one another. One of our favorite things to do is get Hallie to tell it to us. If the situation calls for a reminder with a touch of humor, one of us will say, “Hallie, what’s Rule #1?” She’ll respond, “Don’t feak out!” That usually helps us laugh, calm down, and keep working.

I bring it up because we are easily tempted not to laugh, but to take ourselves much too seriously. We are tempted not to calm down, but to hit the hysteria button. And we are tempted not to keep working, but to start looking for whatever responsibility is closest to us that we can throw overboard.

Before I get any further, let me say that we need to be wise. Some of us may be trying to dig a new Suez Canal with a spoon. Not only are we using the wrong tool, it’s a dumb project and we’ve got other priorities. So yes, we need to examine if we’re really working on the best things and if we really should cut back.

Also, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about how most (though not all) of the things we tend to stress out about are first-world problems. We are not, for the most part, concerned about our next meal or trying to figure out how we can wash the clothes we’re wearing since they are the only clothes we have. We have bills, even big bills, for extra minutes on our pocket phones, for insurance for tomorrow’s possible problems, for houses with doors between rooms and plumbing inside, and for bread that won’t upset our sensitive stomachs. These are all fine things, but most of the time we are blessed to be in these sorts of “troubles.” We’re tempted to freak out in situations that are far removed from life and death dilemmas.

And if you’re a Christian, YOUR SINS ARE PAID FOR BY JESUS AND ETERNAL LIFE IS YOURS! What can man do to you? Who can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?

So, we’ve got it really good. We’re tempted to over a number of things that are first-world problems. Let’s try to keep perspective.

Why would endurance make anyone happy?

Because life—with people, taking care of things, earning money, etc.—is still hard and tiring and challenging. Not only that, there are a lot of evil, unresolved things still happening in the world, even if those things aren’t happening directly to us.

In the midst of this, God calls us to something very specific. He wants us to have endurance. James tells us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds because God is producing “endurance” (NAS, or “steadfastness” ESV).

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4, ESV)

Why should that give us joy? We might say, “I’ll take my joy another way, please.” Paul sounds much like James in Romans 5:3-5.

we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3–5, ESV)

Again, we’re in first-world discussions when these passages apply more to our list of to-dos than to our list of trials. We think being tired is a trial. Perhaps in some cases it is, or being tired is the result of severe adversity. Nevertheless, some of our tasks are heavy and we have hardships mixed in.

James 1 and Romans 5 are passages of truth we know. If someone asked us the question, “What is the benefit of trials?” we can answer clearly, “We get endurance that is making us perfect.” But being able to answer the question correctly, even quickly, does not seem to help our emotional responses in the middle of the troubles or tired mornings unfinished tasks. Why?

The harsh answer is that we’re idolators, or at least little-faithed worshippers of the true God. G.K. Beale, in his book We Become What We Worship, said,

God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core of our beings we are imaging creatures. It is not possible to be neutral on this issue: we either reflect the Creator or something in creation. (16)

The thesis of his book is that “What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration” (16).

We’ve learned to dislike endurance because we love other gods. We love the god of comfort who takes the form of a Lazy Boy recliner or the snooze button. We love the god of immediacy who takes the form of overnight, even same day delivery (from Amazon, the holy grail of online retail). We love the god of security who takes the form of long numbers printed in black ink on our bank statements. We love the god of someone-else-will-do-it who takes the form that I’ll let someone else describe some other time.

Where is the true God in all of this? Where is the sovereign God who does whatever He pleases? Didn’t He say that wickedness doesn’t please Him? Did He change His mind or lose His ability? Where is the loving God who didn’t spare His own Son for us? Didn’t He promise that He would give us all things? Sometimes it doesn’t even seem like He can help me figure out what to take off my calendar, how to arrange my priorities. How can all of this be good? And why does He persist in wanting us to have endurance?

It’s because He is the God of endurance. He wants us to have endurance because He wants us to bear His image. We don’t value endurance because we don’t really know God that well.

What is He like?

I’ve said this before, but I believe it’s a healthy exercise. It’s a question we can (and should) ask when it comes to worldview and worship, when it comes to life-application and how we should respond in any given situation. If we were made to bear His likeness, then we should always be asking, “What is He like?” If we want to know how to handle something, shouldn’t we ask: “How does God handle that?”

For our encouragement tonight, He is not a basket case. Rule #1: God doesn’t freak out.

Out of all the beings in the universe, who should be most upset that 10 year-olds in Sudan are eating from the dump or being stolen from their families or being killed? As the infinitely loving Father, who cares more that your boss assigned you a big project that is taking time away from your family? Of all the beings in the universe, who knows the most problems? Combining His omniscience and omnipresence, He sees all the visible horrors everywhere as well as all the sins in every heart everywhere. God has the most problematic material to work with.

Out of all the beings in the universe, whose name is on the line most? The sovereign God, the holy God, the God of love, the God who made grandiose promises, including numerous specific promises to Israel who rejects Him. Who should be bothered most that rebels and unbelievers and transgressors persist? That men take His Son’s name in vain? That men persecute, and mock, His adopted children?

Yet God is not freaking out. There’s no fretting or frenzy or fussing. He endures. That is not to say that He has to endure as if someone else is forcing Him to wait. He’s waiting for a reason. He’s not ignoring the problems, He’s solving them according to His timeline. And He is the God of endurance.

Where does it say that?

I’m reading through the New Testament in Greek this year. I’m not creating a super detailed translation of every verse, but I’ve got enough proficiency and tools to make it a do-able discipline. One of the benefits for me is that I don’t know Greek so well that I can just skip over phrases. I suppose translating between any two languages requires the translator to slow down. When it comes to Bible reading, slowing down helps avoid skipping over.

Paul makes a few comments in Romans 15 that are readable in English but that I hadn’t given much time.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6, ESV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)

God is the God of endurance , and the “God of encouragement” and the “God of hope.” The point of this benediction prayer is that God who is characterized by His own endurance will be working that out among us. He wants us to share His enduring-ability, which includes enduring one another (see also Colossians 3:12-13). He is faithful, steadfast, long-suffering, and patient. He’s restoring us to His image, and He’s doing that will the whole group. Talk about a project that seems impossible! That we would live in such harmony with one another…that together [we] may with one voice glorify God? Weak people with strong people? Selfish people with sensitive people? Sinners with other being saved sinners? God loves it.

How would you show off?

If you were Him, and you had excellent, truly praiseworthy endurance, how would you show it off? If that sort of endurance were worth others having, how would you go about sharing it with them? You’d need some plots with conflict and some long books with many chapters.

If you were an endurance runner, you wouldn’t show it by running across the room. If you wanted someone else to have the joy of endurance running, you wouldn’t say that they were done after one lap around the track.

God—based on revelation in His word as well as revelation through providence in the world—loves Him some difficult stories. He likes dark and stormy nights, and late ones, too. He’s a master at telling uncertain, page-turning suspense thrillers. He writes in enemies and heaviness and pain. He delights in improbable heroes and impossible victories. He likes the weak, the despised, and the small.

Think of all the conflict adjectives God writes with: dark, small, unfinished, uncertain, unlikely, distant, hostile, relentless, vulnerable. But think of all the resolution nouns He creates: dark turns to the dawn, small turns into a platform, hostility turns into friend(s), weakness turns into muscle, vulnerability turns into a shield, relentless turns into choruses, unlikely turns into fruit, distant turns into history.

When we’re in one of those chapters, or even when we’re into the next chapter that starts in the calm, we may not feel as if something magnificent occurred. But we did share more of His magnificent endurance.

How many plates is too many?

God is spinning a lot of plates. Some of those plates crash because He wants them too. While we obviously can’t do all that He can do, we can (and should) do like He does. So spin some plates and stop freaking out about how many it is and don’t freak out if one (or more) plates shatter.

We’d rather, I think, just keep the plates in the cupboard and rent a DVD. We’ll sit this one out. We’ve already got a lot going on, so one more plate might throw everything out of kilter.

If you can figure out a way to manage everything in your life than you don’t need God. If you can eliminate all the hard things than you don’t need faith. If it doesn’t require faith, then it’s not pleasing to God. Until you get the point where you want to give up, you can’t endure.

Because we have hard decisions doesn’t (always) mean that we’re in the wrong place. Sometimes it does, and we need to repent for our sinful choices that got us there. But when we live by faith we’ll be tired. We’ll be afflicted by not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed in order to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7-8). But His power is supposed to be visible in our dying to bring life.

A strange thing is not happening to you. Are you frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, uncertain? Sweet. Don’t quit, unless you do it like a man. As the King James says, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). No wimps.

Wisdom knows, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10). God is reshaping us into His image, an improbable proposition. But He loves it, even if it takes a while. And of course it will. He’s the God of endurance, the God of encouragement, and the God of hope.

Endurance brings joy because we’re being remade. God’s plan is to remake us into the image of His Son. Jesus knew endurance.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3, ESV)

Conclusion

Some people respond like vultures to difficulties, taking advantage and circling overhead waiting for the worst moment. Other people, Christians included, respond like chickens, running around with their heads cut off. Still others respond like ostriches, burying their heads in the sand. Others, and I think this is what we’re shooting for, respond like eagles, mounting up to fly.

The whole chapter of Isaiah 40 is worth reading, but in order to encourage our endurance:

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28–31 ESV)

Mount up!