Where My Heart Finds Rescue

Endurance. A word when I think on it’s meaning can stir up lots of mixed emotions.

Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/endurance?s=t describes endurance this way,  “It is the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.”

My way of describing it most days is a bit more dramatic. I describe it like being on a ship that is being tossed in the crushing waves, the sails are ripped to shreds, the hull has a big hole in it from slamming against a rock and you still make it to shore alive and in one piece. Strike up the band. You endured.

 A less dramatic way of describing it would be just to simply call it being able to hold on till the end through all the hard stuff life throws at me. If I am going to be honest, I admit my life can most definitely be anything but simple. And endure through all the hard stuff? It seems like more than you can do on some of the days like I have.  So yes, the ship tossed on the ocean pretty much describes my occasional chaotic and crazy life. 

It is not that I actually find myself leaning over crashing waves and holding my breath hoping to avoid the rocks but sometimes all the simple things all start to pile up and begin to weigh me down and make me anxious and fearful that I won’t survive another day still intact for any benefit to God’s kingdom.  I just feel like I’m going under on some really hard days. Anybody?

I found this verse quietly tucked into 2 Thessalonians 3:5 which says, “May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.”  It amazes me that it turned up on the exact page I was reading this morning. A morning I was struggling to do some of that enduring all my own. A morning that I so just wanted to avoid some of life’s crashing waves and quite honestly just enjoy a time out parked in the calm crystal blue waters complete with a nice sunset  view and a nice cool breeze. 

The great thing is that God does show up for us like that. You and for me. And He does it over and over again. He always knows when we are being tossed around and stands ready to send out the life raft. He is never one minute late to rescue us with His great enduring love. And that part about Christ’s enduring strength? He always knows when to rush in to reach out his big brotherly hand to keep us from abandoning ship or worse yet being swept under the current of it all. Because some days, we just can’t do this whole life trip all alone. Even better news tells us we weren’t ever meant to.

Some days all I can do is muster enough strength to drag my weighed down heart to the feet of Jesus and just let it fall.  I have to surrender every ounce of it and let it spill over.  For it is there at the feet of Jesus and in the pages of God’s word, my heart is directed to the greatest love and best enduring kind of strength of all. It is there I find that life raft and big brotherly hand to pull me in.  It is there my heart finds rescue. 

So will my day suddenly get easier with all my problems magically disappearing after reading this verse? Probably not. But what this encouraging word did do was usher in a peace, a renewed inner strength and a resolve I didn’t have before it found its way down into my worn out heart. My ship is still tossed but I now can see land up ahead and for now it makes all the difference. 

See You in the Field,

Susan