You have need of endurance...

The following is an excerpt from my personal journal dated September 11, 2015.

 

            A few weeks ago, my wife and I were celebrating our 28^th wedding anniversary at a beautiful log cabin nestled in the north Georgia mountains. My wife loves the outdoors, so we went on a few hiking trails nearby. One of them was Raven Cliff Falls trail. It’s a 2.5-mile hike through shaded woods along a creek with several lesser falls and pools. It was cool and a bit rainy, so it was an enjoyable hike.

            As we were nearing the end of the hike, we heard a noise behind us. We turned to look and it was two women, an older woman and what appeared to be her adult daughter. They were walking briskly, probably for exercise. I told Cheryl, “At the pace they are moving, they will pass us by in a few minutes.” We had been in no hurry; we stopped several times along the way to explore a side trail, to take a picture of a flower or a section of the creek we thought beautiful, or to check out one of the many campsites in case we ever decided to come back with the rest of the family. Sure enough, within a few minutes, the pair passed us by and disappeared around a bend in the trail ahead. I figured we would see them at the falls when we reached them shortly.

            But not too long after, we spotted them ahead, stopped along the side of the trail, huffing and puffin. They looked tired and out of breath. They were looking at one of the larger falls along the way to Raven Cliff itself. As we passed, I asked them, “Catching your breath before the finish?” The older woman panted, “No… we can see it from here.” She pointed to the waterfall. “Close enough is close enough,” she said with an exhausted smile. I thought to myself as we walked on. Wait, does she think that’s Raven Cliff Falls? Does she think they were there?

            The actual falls is an impressive sight. Two massive, towering cliffs of solid granite, with a waterfall that gushes through a break between them, ending in a secluded cave with a pool of icy, cold, fresh water to splash around in and be refreshed by. It’s definitely worth the two and a half mile walk.

            The waterfall the two women pointed to was nice… but it’s hardly a substitute for the real Raven Cliff Falls! I found myself becoming anxious for them as we walked on. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if they would continue on and come to the real falls. “I hope they aren’t going to turn back,” I said to Cheryl. “It would be a shame to come so close and stop just short of the payoff.”

            Sure enough, after just a few minutes more of walking, we turned a corner on the trail and it opened up to the majestic granite cliffs and the towering waterfall. It was hidden from sight by the twist and turns of the trail; you could not see it until you were there. Excited and spurred on by the prospect of getting up to the water, Cheryl and I scrambled up an incline littered by roots and limb and loose rock. In fact, the most arduous and strenuous part of the whole trail was right there at the end.

            Once we reached the falls, I looked back once more to see if the two women were coming. No sign. I whistled loudly. Everything in me wanted to shout, “Don’t stop now! Keep going! You’re almost there! It’s worth it! Just keep going!”  

The two women never came. We never saw them again, not even on the way back. Cheryl and I talked on the return trip about how they must have thought that they had seen all there was to see, were unimpressed and turned back, disappointed and probably a little bitter. “Really?! This is what we came all this way to see? We suffered and wore ourselves out for THIS?!” We imagined them going back home and telling their friends, “Don’t bother with Raven Cliff Falls. What a waste of time! We did it and it was nothing special.” How many people would never get to experience it because they believed their report? How many people would never even start the trail because they didn’t finish it?

It’s not hard to see where I am going with this. All weekend Cheryl and I joked that every trail was “rich with metaphors” for following Christ. I believe He wanted to join the conversation about trails and paths and enduring to the end. Raven Cliff Falls was His statement on the matter.

            Rewind about two weeks before our hike to the falls. I had been listening to a podcast by John Eldredge. He was talking about his practice of asking God for a word or theme for the upcoming new year. He usually does this on New Year’s Day, he said. I had heard this idea before and it intrigued me. But it’s August already, I thought. It’s too late to get a word from God about my year. At the exact moment I had that thought, John Eldredge said on his podcast, “It’s never too late to ask God to give you a word for the season of your life you are in now.” Ha! Ok, then.

So I prayed, “Father, do You have a word or theme for where I am right now?” Immediately, in my mind I heard, as clear as day, the word, “Endure.” It resonated in my heart. It lined up with so much that I had been reading in the Word and experiencing in my life. It rang true in my whole being, right down to my soul.

That night, I told Cheryl I had asked for a word. She said, Wait, don’t tell me. Let me ask about your word and see if God confirms it.” She sat silently praying for a moment. “OK, what was your word?” she asked. “Endure,” I said. She jumped and slapped my leg playfully, a big smile on her face. “No way! That’s exactly what I heard, just the way you said it just now… ‘Endure.’ ” So I began looking everywhere for what God might be saying or revealing about enduring. The word began cropping up in almost every passage of scripture I read in my prayer times.

So when we had that experience at Raven Cliff Falls, God got my attention. There are promises to those who endure to the end. There are rewards. There are also dire warnings for those who don’t. Here are a few things I believe He said to me about endurance in connection with our hike on the trail:

Faith is crucial. If you don’t believe that what’s at the end of the trail is worth whatever it takes to get there, you will give up before you find out. You will never know.

Pace yourself. Don’t be in such a hurry that you miss beauty and wonder and joy along the way. Take time to rest and catch your breath. Draw strength and encouragement from the journey itself. If you put your head down just to soldier through, you may burn out before you get to the end and find yourself settling for something less, becoming disappointed and cynical and bitter. You may actually discourage others from ever starting by your failure to finish.

Don’t walk alone. Two are better than one on a journey. There is great value in sharing the adventure with others who want to finish with you. Allow other voices to encourage you when you lose your desire to go on. Allow them to share wisdom on how to best handle obstacles on the trail. Another pair of eyes can see things yours might miss. It’s wisdom.

Look for the trail markers. They have been put there to guide you by the ones who blazed the trail before you. When my wife hiked part of the Appalachian Trail the year prior, she noticed that occasionally there were these white rectangles called blazes painted on trees along the path for when you needed to know you were still going in the right direction, or when the path took a weird turn or seemed confusing. Just when you might be thinking, Am I lost? Did I make a wrong turn? Did I wander off the trail somehow? there was a blaze to reassure you and direct you to the next section. But you have to 1) know what they look like, 2) know what they mean, and 3) keep your head up and your eyes open so you don’t miss them. Comfort can be a distraction. It makes us lazy and less aware of our situation. Stay alert.

It gets hardest at the end. The hardest part of the trail is often that last little bit. You know you’re close, but it’s been a long walk. You’re tired, you can sense it’s almost over, and then you face the steepest, most strenuous climb. Don’t quit! Endure. It’s worth it. Jesus warned His followers that the closer they got to Him, and the closer they got to His return, the more they would suffer like Him. If I am not experiencing this, I have to ask myself, “Have I stopped moving forward? Am I camped along the trail in a cozy spot, no longer even on the path?”

You can’t see it from a distance. Like the trail to Raven Cliff Falls, close enough is not close enough. It doesn’t cut it. You never see the falls until you reach them. It’s not something you can admire from a distance to save yourself some trouble. You have to keep walking all the way or you will never even know what you missed.

Tell people about it. Show them where the trailhead is. Describe the falls. Tell them what you saw and how it made you feel. Get them excited. Offer to hike with them. Point out all the cool stuff along the way. Encourage them to endure to the end.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9, emphasis mine)

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14, emphasis mine)

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, yet a little while, and the coming One will come and will not delay; ‘but My righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” (Hebrews 10:36-39)

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector 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. (Hebrews 12:1-2, emphasis mine)