“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us.” [Hebrews 12:1 HCSB]
If there is a “let us” phrase in Hebrews that describes the past year (2020), it just might be this one … “let us run with endurance….”
Endurance. The word is “hupomone” and means a cheerful or hopeful fortitude or constancy. It also carries the idea of waiting.
Endurance might also be the word in Hebrews that best describes the year in front of us (2021), especially that “waiting” part. We are waiting to see if things are going to get better, stay the same, or get worse. We are waiting for politicians on both sides to get their acts together. We are waiting to see if the vaccine works. We are waiting to see how badly small businesses have been affected by the shut-down. We are waiting … and probably not as cheerfully as we might.
Waiting is a part of life. It is something about which we often have no choice. We wait in lines, on freeways, in offices. We wait for good things to happen, such as the birth of a child. We wait and watch as not-so-good things happen.
It is not the waiting that determines our maturity – it is how we wait that will determine if we grow in spiritual maturity or if we allow the flesh to rule.
We must learn to wait with cheerful and hopeful endurance, fortitude, commitment. If we do that, we will “go on to maturity!”
