Endurance – the Greater Miracle

Miracles still happen. They always have. We all have the need of miracles in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. We all have desires that need to be met; desires right and appropriate — for health and spiritual prosperity. When it comes to the miracle we so richly need, we stoop with immediacy in prayer:

I prayed, I prayed to my God above,

To be healed of this wretched disease,

I prayed, I prayed whilst down on my knees,

“Lord, show me this, your love!”

But the Lord did not accede to my prayer,

He didn’t choose to take my disease away,

He gave me the forbearance to meet each day,

He gave me endurance to bear.

There are miracles of healing, just as there are miracles of forbearance.

Endurance is the greater miracle, because it’s a work of God’s grace in us each and every day to bear with pain and all the despairing fragility that pain brings.

Endurance, especially in weakness, is a divine acquisition unfolded to the maturity that only grace can procure in us. We may present as willing and surrendered — and we need to do this; our bit — but the miracle of being able to bear that which we previously could not is a gift; one most sincerely sought.

If we are able to see the benefit in endurance, meaning we believe in its value, God will see and reward our faith. We will be able to endure, one day at a time.

Some might attribute our endurance as an ongoing effort of human strength, but the miracle takes place when we perceive that endurance has gotten easier. We think on it less. We get on with our days. We continue to serve, despite our limits. We make less of that which used to cost us much anxiety. The miracle is the edge is taken off the pain, or the pain, somehow, has less capacity to cripple us.

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Endurance is the choice for joy on the uphill leg, for soon the plateau will arrive.

Endurance is the mysterious quality of God’s providence when we are called to endure pain. It may not be accepted with delight, but we do accept it when it’s given.

Endurance is the greater miracle than a healing done once-for-all, because it propounds God’s provident grace every single day.

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If we are to have fortitude,

In order to endure our pain,

God will help with our attitude,

To bear with both sunshine and rain.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.