My church recently concluded one of their longest sermon series. The pastor titled it, All In. the Australian slang term “Bonzer” appropriately describes it. I’ll include a YouTube of the final sermon below. In my mental meditation that sermon series combined with my cover story interview with Brandon Young and Blayne Smith for the Summer 2025 issue of Shout! OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE along with a very drenching 8 mile bike ride that I did this morning in the rain the central perspective for this blog post was formed. The leadership insights of Brandon’s and Blayne’s book PERSEVERANCE > ENDURANCE led to my conversation with them. And – it led to the scope of my bike ride today. And, somewhere around mile 7 of that ride I think God awed me with a bit more insight. That’s what I want to share with you. Here’s what it looks like when endurance is greater than perseverance.
GOTTA DO THE LOOP TWICE!
It wasn’t supposed to start raining until a bit later this morning. So, I thought I’d bike before the precipitation and do some leg strength training for my upcoming 10 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail. I don’t even get my car parked and it’s already sprinkling. As I’m unloading the bike I’m thinking, “Oh well, it’s just a mist – shouldn’t be too bad.” But before I’d even gotten on to the access road to the park where I’d ride, it was full on rain. I have a road bike which is defined by a very narrow wheel. So, at the very least, in the rain, on a wet surface, you need to pay better attention to avoid slipping, sliding and getting hurt.
Once at the park I’m going around the loop, and by this time I’m already totally soaked. My glasses aren’t just splattered with rain drops – they’re full-on dripping. Wet shirt, wet shorts, wet arms, face, legs, hands and feat – it kinda feels good. I can handle 1 time around and call it a day. But, as I get nearer to the end of that loop, the preacher’s sermon starts to resonate in my mind, “Are you willing to be, ‘All In’“?
“Uh Yeah”, I reply, “I am just about to finish the full loop”! And then God chimes in, “You had to endure the first loop cause you gotta get back to your car. Pass the exit and do a second loop so that you can experience perseverance.”
The theme for our Summer 2025 magazines has been Timbre. We’ve been talking about hearing the distinct voice of God and being attune to His Spirit. And — not that I’m awesome at doing that, but I am getting better. So, zoom, I pass by the exit and move on to lap 2. I start out strong and feeling good about my choice at least until the wind picks up along with the rain. The many thoughts of how the rain may be creating more drag and thus be making my speed slower and my work harder create a lot of noise and distraction in my mind. Turns out you may actually be faster when it rains. I finally start to listen to all the wonderful natural wildlife sounds around me and decide to draw on Young’s and Smith’s book advice to GROW through adversity. I can do this! I can persevere. After all, Perseverance > Endurance, right guys?!
WATCH THE VIDEO AT 21:40
And that’s when God speaks once again, and invites us to look more deeply: The greatest calling in life is to live like Christ. We do that by, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” The word endured in this Bible verse is ὑπομένω (hypomenō) and it means to: suffer patiently, bear up under circumstances, hold out, AND persevere. Endurance = Perseverance!
God wants us to be like Christ – not just in the tough stuff but in the toughest of stuff. In the “I don’t want to”, the “I can’t” and especially in the “My God, why have you forsaken me”. And not just your most unbearable suffering but especially others: the person with a terminal condition, the survivor, the one with a disability or the parent who lost a daughter in a flash flood at a Christian camp!
Our perseverance, if it’s going to have the real gutsy essence of God has to be able to equally endure with and alongside others the loss, the heartache, the longing, the shell-shocked numbness and the eventual acceptance and surrender. THAT is what Christ asked his disciples when He was here on earth and what he asks us today – to simply stay and be with those in the process of accepting what God has given them.
Adventure fully in Christ,
-Brad Bloom, Publisher
