What separates the good days from the bad days in life? The only thing I can come up with is . . . Endurance. When I have a bad day or bad days, it requires me to dig deep and find the endurance to keep moving. There are days when nothing seems to go right and life seems to be stacked against me. My first instinct is to go back to bed, call in sick, and hide until all is well again. However, you and I both know that is not an option. Eric has coined the phrase, "play through the pain" and I have heard it a lot in our 9 years of marriage. There is truth to that saying, because sometimes you have to keep moving in order to make it. Endurance is knowing the odds are not always in your favor and choosing to press through in pursuit of finishing the race.
Lately, God is showing me that endurance is vital to life and essential to following Christ. Not every day is perfect or worthy of the happy dance, but each day is a new opportunity to move closer to finishing the race. Even in the rough days, God is still God and he calls us to rely on him and reach down deep to seize the day anyway. The end result is still the same and how much sweeter will it be, if you have endured and worked for it.
Philippians 3:12-14 says, "I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back." (the message)
---Paige