I went to Atlanta last week with a friend and had a wonderful time. Got to see my precious buddy Lawana and enjoy her and her husband Mitch, eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Buckhead Diner, where they have these fabulous homemade potato chips covered in blue cheese. Well, it was those dang potato chips that caused me to have to exercise.

The couples house we were staying at lived in a development situated on the river. It was beautiful but hilly. So I set out that morning running down their steep hill, forgetting that those things that go down will eventually have to come back up, at least when it comes to getting back to the house you’re staying in.

But the difficult part of that last hill was that I had already been running for almost thirty minutes when I got to it. I have to admit I came to a complete stop at the bottom. Just kind of looked up at it as if I stood there long enough it would miraculously turn into flat plain. No such luck. This mountain was budging. So I did the only thing I knew to do. I lowered my head and set out in a run and refused to look up until I was at the top. About halfway through my thighs and lungs were burning so bad I didn’t think I could do it. But stopping provided nothing more than delayed inevitability. There was no way home but up! So, I hunkered down, and burned my way through it. And do you know what? When I got to the top it felt  exilarating.

Perserverence is that way you know. Frustrating when you’re having to live it out, but oh my, when you get to the top of that hill, to the end of that rope, to the face of that miracle, it will be so worth it. I taught on persaverence last week and the woman with the issue of blood. For twelve years she did everything in her power to be healed. Even spent all her money. And for twelve years she never stopped. And that perseverence led her to the Great Physician.

I’ve had to apply my own amount of perseverence even today. There is a goal I have in mind. A big goal with what I think will be a beautiful beginning to a new story. But it is going to require something of me. Something I don’t necessarily desire to do. And that will require my perseverence. But you know what, perseverence produces character and character produces hope. And do you know how it all gets started? The perseverence and the character and the hope? It all starts with suffering.

And suffering can come in many different forms. It can come through burning pain in your lungs, self-denial, loss, death…all kinds of different ways. But it is through suffering that perseverence is born. And apparantly how character is established. In the words of my former pastor, “How many people get to their destiny moment and their character destroys them when the get there?” So many.

Suffering isn’t fun. Persevering isn’t exactly how I desire to spend an afternoon. But character…I want that. And hope! Well, I can’t even live without that. So, if those have to come through the others than bring on the pain! Bring on the mountain that is the only way to get home. Bring on the burning in the lungs and the battered thighs, (that still haven’t recovered honestly.) And let’s finish this race strong.