Never Quitting

I love stories of people who keep trying and finally reach their goal. I read another one in this morning's paper. Two Massachusets women tried to pass their high school exams...10 times! Finally on the 11th time they passed and are now high school graduates! Way to go, girls!

I may have given up after the third or seventh or ninth time. But they kept going. What a great story of perseverance.

Reminds me of a rather challenging time when our family lived in St. Louis. We had two young children. Were going through an internship program to train for a church plant in the Northeast. And I was trying to finish a Master's Degree. For the first time I was learning to use a computer, using the one at the church office.

One night when I was sitting in front of the computer monitor at church, drinking coffee and trying to write my guided research paper. It was the last rung of the ladder to complete a Master's of Arts in ministry at Harding Graduate School. Ben Williams, the preaching minister at that church, caem by the office that night. Knowing that I was struggling to complete this project, he came by my desk and handed me a Scripture. It was from James 1 in the J.B. Phillips translation. This word from the Lord meant so much to me that I typed a copy, taped it to an index card and put it next to the computer screen every time I worked on this paper.

As I look at my monitor right now, I notice that same passage, taped to an index card, with the words of that Scripture that Ben gave me that evening 17 years ago:

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence. And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God - who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty - and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him. But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts.

So, whatever you're facing right now, my friend, would you consider this promise and exhortation from the living God. He is for you. He is shaping you and me in this time of perseverance and endurance.

And remember those women in Massachusets, who are now high school graduates. They're enjoying the sweet fruit of perseverance. And they now have a story to tell. So will you. To God's glory.

Jim