Character produces hope

Early on in this treacherously long walk with Jesus, I read the Bible through in a couple of weeks. I wanted to sip at the cup of living water so badly the pages flew by like the two books I read last week, one in a particularly long day.

Verses, however, stuck with me. Philippians 4:3 is still the verse I love most. But right there with it was the start of Romans 5 (and on through the rest of the book). Though Romans is an exceedingly difficult book to understand at times, and it is not my favorite of the Pauline writings (that would be Ephesians), it hangs with you like a visiting Aunt.

Romans 5 starts, "We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn't put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

That sequence still is being lived out in me to this day, nearly 20 years later.

Rich Mullins once wrote that some trouble is gonna come up in our lives, so grab Jesus and hold on tight (or words to that effect).

Trouble produces, creates, causes to be born, endurance.
Endurance, that ability to grab Jesus and hold on tight even though the waves are growing by the minute and they're crashing against the side of the boat and you want to just fly on out of there.
Endurance produces character, that ability to remain true to oneself, to do the right thing no matter who is watching.
And character produces hope, that cousin of faith, that unseen and unknown trust of God that whatever is happening right now isn't the end but the beginning.

Trouble...
Endurance...
Character ...
Hope.

Touch words of the modern Christian.

I have trouble, growing all around me, beating me down.
I have endurance because, like Peter, where would I go but to the Lord?
Character because my trouble and my trouble-produced endurance, totally unbeknown st to me, has started to wear away the sharp edges into a more humane sculpture of a man.
Hope because that inkling of endurance has changed me into someone who at least knows what love is and tries to give it away.

That's the plan, Stan.

I read this morning about the shooting last week at a University in Kenya. The terrorists killed more than 100. Before doing so, they made sure the ones they were killing were Christians. If one said they were a Muslim and could quote some of the Quran, they were released. If not, they were shot.

Think of that. Think of how trouble produces endurance which produces character which produces hope. Think of what it would be like to have to decide whether one would refuse to let go of the one who is sleeping at the end of the boat even to save one's life. Think of that long road you've been traveling to get to him and that longer road you've been walking to keep up with him and that longest road of all, that one that will lead you home with him.

That's what the Gospel is all about, it seems to me. Finding one who will love you despite the warts and obvious blemishes, then clinging and clawing and holding on tight as the flames get hotter and higher.

Trouble...
Endurance...
Character ...
Hope.

That's life.