Psalm 107:1
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
I’ve never quite understood the allure of an extreme endurance race. I mean, just consider this paragraph from an article about 9 of the most extreme endurance challenges in the world:
In some cases, participants subject themselves to crossing more than 100 miles of desert, mountains, or ocean. In others, racers plan to go days with almost no sleep, reaching the point of hallucination and breakdown. There are some races in which participants don’t even know when the race will start or what sorts of obstacles they’ll have to endure.1
Isn’t life itself an extreme endurance challenge?
Ask a new parent about days with almost no sleep. Give that parent a medal. Or even better, just one glorious afternoon nap.
Ask a newly grieving one about sleepless nights that persist beyond the time society deems reasonable to be sad. Honor that one for doing the impossible.
Don’t know what sorts of obstacles you’ll have to endure? Yep. That’s about the sum of it–life in a nutshell.
Isn’t the journey hard enough without intentionally choosing challenges to test your endurance?
Maybe.
Or maybe the challenges we choose prepare us for the ones we would never choose, but that come to us anyway: the diagnosis, the confession, the layoff, the accident, the death.
The memory of God’s strength carrying us during the chosen challenges, equips us to endure the rest of life’s challenges.
Maybe every test of our endurance–chosen or not–is a glimpse into the enduring power of God’s abiding love for us and for all creation.
We are never alone in the challenges of life. We are never left to succeed, or to fail, on our own. We are never without a coach, a partner, a friend, a Savior. God’s steadfast love endures forever.
God’s steady, steadfast, unchanging love for you endures forever.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. We cannot endure without your love supporting us. Be our strength and our salvation. Amen.
P.S. Friday’s the day for a little flashback, so here’s a link to the song I wrote based on Psalm 107. Maybe you’d like to have the refrain rattling around in your head today: We thank you, God. Your love is sure; your heart holds us together. With joy we lift our voice in song: your love endures forever.
https://staceynaleancarlson.com/2018/03/05/your-love-endures-forever-psalm-107/
1 https://www.businessinsider.com/hardest-endurance-races-in-the-world-2017-11