Building a Life Worth Living: Building Perseverance

I learned a lot about perseverance while training for Ironman Wisconsin in 2004. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, triathlon is an activity where competitors swim, bike, and run. The term Ironman refers to the longest race distance—2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running. Participants enter the water at 7:00 a.m. and have 17 hours to complete the race. If you cross the finish line before midnight, you are an Ironman!
At the age of 42, I got the idea in my head that I would like to accomplish this feat. With a traditional sports background of football, basketball, and baseball, I had little experience with long-distance swimming, biking, or running. Nevertheless, I started training. It took me 18 months to get in shape. Race day temperatures in early September peaked at 95 degrees with 30 mph southerly winds. Under these severe conditions, it took every ounce of determination that I had to finish the race. I crossed the finish line that evening at 7:53 p.m. as the announcer yelled, “Hey, Dan, you’re an Ironman!” Needless to say, it was a long day, but well worth it!
The prefix per with the base word severe denotes being in the middle of a difficult situation. For Christians, building a life worth living is often challenging! Nobody sails through life without spiritual, physical, or emotional challenges. The longer you live, the more you’ll understand. So what allows followers of Jesus to persevere and stay focused on eternity while living in a fallen world?
First, the many verses in the Bible that promise reward for faithfulness. My favorite is Romans 8:28, which tells us “that all things work together for good to those who love God.” Second, the example that Jesus set for us. As with all marks of spiritual maturity, Jesus is the perfect example of perseverance. From the time Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised a Savior who would come into this world, persevere through unimaginable human suffering, and ultimately render Satan powerless.
If you ever get the crazy notion to do an Ironman, be prepared to put in some arduous training. If you are serious about building a life worth living, be prepared to do as the apostle Paul wrote to his Colossian friends when he said, “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel” (Colossians 1:23).
Daniel Madson is a former school teacher and a member of Abiding Shepherd Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.