The text came to me shortly after 10:00 a.m. while I was sitting with 20,000 plus high school students and adult leaders inside the New Orleans Superdome at a Youth Gathering. “I had to run back to the shop, the bus started acting up again!! I will keep you posted.” It was from the bus driver for our group of 53 youth and 11 adults, leaving in 90 minutes for a beach and debriefing time. When it was time to leave, we still had no bus. It was 90 + degrees of New Orleans heat and humidity, we had our luggage but nowhere to go. The staff of the Superdome did an amazing job (another blog sometime on great customer service) bringing us inside for the next four hours until the repaired bus returned to begin the next leg of our journey. I’m confident the 4 hours seemed like days to the kids. The irony was the youth gathering theme was Endure, and I’m proud of how these youth handled it.

Enduring is living through something difficult, challenging or painful, and it’s personal. What meets my test for enduring might not match yours. For instance, you may find the struggles in my story less challenging than your own experiences, that’s a personal perspective.  There is also no formula for how long you must endure, it might be hours, days, weeks, months or even years. Human nature makes us want to get through any challenge we face quickly or if possible, avoid it. If there is an escape path to a difficult situation, most of us will take it. When growing up if I complained about something being difficult or painful, my dad would say, “it’ll build character in you”, which I hated hearing. Afterall, it was hard, and I didn’t like it. I especially didn’t like it when it was over, and I realized he was right.  I was a better person, more confident because of the experience and yes, more character, for making through the challenge I faced.

I believe there are three key components to successfully enduring something.

Surrender – We like to be in control, making the decisions. When we have no control, we struggle and fight to regain control. Control is an illusion. We can influence outcomes, but we don’t control them. While enduring it’s important to surrender control by accepting that you don’t have any. I’ve twice had to endure a period of unemployment when my job was eliminated. During my search I accepted I had no control because I couldn’t make someone create or make available a job matching my gifts. When I applied, I had no control in making someone want to interview me. Finally, I had no control over those who interviewed me to make a job offer. If you can’t surrender control, the entire time you are enduring will be a fight for control that you can never have, which only leads to greater frustration.

Patience – While enduring, you’ll face uncertainty. You don’t know when you’ll be done, e.g., I have no idea how long of a job search I will have. It may not happen the way you want or imagine. Your brain will hate the uncertainty because brains love certainty, which to our brain is predictability. While enduring, almost everything is unpredictable. You’ll need to be patient, which is a hard skill to learn. I’ve never been good at being patient. What about you? The way you gain more patience is to endure, because it teaches you patience.

Persevere – One of the most important things is not giving up. No matter how long it takes, or the setbacks you experience, don’t quit. You must believe it’ll work out in the end and stay the course. While you don’t have control and live with uncertainty, it doesn’t mean you do nothing. You can influence outcomes by your efforts. What if you are enduring a period in your career where you are seeking a promotion, what can you do? You can go back to school to advance your education, volunteer for special projects learning new skills, network to meet new people and on and on. Doing any of these guarantees nothing, but it may just be what will get you noticed. Sometimes to achieve a goal you need to accept that the path you’re on isn’t working and change paths. The goal remains the same, but the path is new.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12: 1-3