Endurance

Endurance

This is a picture of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance. I find it fascinating that God can equip the human being to not only endure the challenges that Shackleton faced, but contend against them and not run from them.

The famous explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 28 men left England aboard the ship Endurance (pictured above) on August 8, 1914 to fulfill his dream of crossing the South Polar continent from sea to sea.

During the expedition the ship got trapped in ice. Shackleton and his men found themselves marooned in the Antarctic for five months. They lived on top of floating ice, fed on seals and kept warm by playing hockey and dog-sled racing. In April 1916, Shackleton and 5 of his men set off in three small lifeboats they had recovered, to find help on Elephant Island.

If you landed on this island by this point, would you faithfully endure to the end or give up? Colossians 1:11 says 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience… I often wonder what may have come if I would have just endured a little longer in a game, with a friendship, a job, a struggle. What did I miss out on?

Reminds me of this man who was stranded on a desert island. When rescuers finally found him, they saw three buildings on the island. They asked, “What’s that building?” “That’s my house,” the Baptist answered. “Well, what’s that second building?” “That’s my church,” he said. “But, then what’s that third building?” “Oh, that’s where I used to go to church.” He couldn’t endure right?

Shackleton endured and their patience paid off. The six men spent 16 days crossing 1,300 km of ocean. The six men landed on an uninhabited part of the island so their last hope was to cross 26 miles of treacherous mountains and glaciers until they finally reached a whaling station where they found help.

Shackleton returned to rescue the men on Elephant Island and amazingly, apart from some missing toes from frostbites, not one member of the 28-man crew was lost.
I can’t make someone endure, but I can show someone how too. Even when it is facing great odds, financially, losses, challenges, discouragement, I choose to let his glorious might win over my weariness and often times selfishness. How? That’s my prayer. It comes from Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

If you find yourself about to jump from the ship of endurance, make your hope in Christ not your circumstances. Be reminded at God’s patience for you and your sin before you jump ship because someone isn’t towing the line how you want. Stay fervent in your prayer life. Those who know how to pray on their knees without ceasing are practicing Endurance. The more you pray the more you can endure. I would wager, most those who give up, surrender and withdraw from whatever they may be facing, probably gave up on prayer first. When we do that we are saying I don’t believe my God will be true to his word in hearing my every plea and answering my every prayer. Because if you did believe you wouldn’t have stopped praying and had you not stopped praying you likely would have endured to the end.