Staying the Course

Staying the Course

Romans 5:1-5

            At the beginning of World War II Germany overran most of Europe.  There was a handful of countries that were not under Nazi control, a group whose number constantly diminished.  British, French and Belgian troops were pushed back to a beachhead at Dunkirk, France, and surrounded by the German army.  They seemed doomed; but a hastily assembled armada of boats of every kind and description rescued 338,226 soldiers over an eight-day period.  From this auspicious beginning, the Allied forces began to push back against Hitler’s hegemony, resulting in the freeing of all European territory.

            One of the most significant figures in the battle for Britain and eventually Europe was the British prime minister, Winston Churchill.  His speeches and his never-say-die attitude inspired not only the British army, but the entire citizenry to stand firm.  His resoluteness spread far beyond Britain’s shores and had a lasting influence on the world.

            Churchill, faced with an almost impossible situation, said, “Never give up.  Never, never give up.  Never, never, never give up.”  That’s a lot of “nevers!”

Many years later, Jim Valvano, who won a NCAA basketball championship as coach of North Carolina State, was battling cancer.  In a speech to his supporters he used almost the same words as Churchill.  Valvano eventually lost his battle, but he never quit fighting.  Cancer may have killed him, but it didn’t defeat him.

I think Paul had somewhat the same idea in mind when he wrote his epistle to the Christians in Rome.  Because we have faith in God and in the reconciling power of Jesus Christ, we have access to God’s grace.  That makes all the difference in our lives.  From the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior our lives change.  Our relationship with God is restored, and we have all the encouragement we need to move forward with confidence. 

We know we cannot escape suffering, whether of the personal variety like Jim Valvano, or that which affects whole groups of people, such as World War II Europe.  Suffering will come, and not even God’s grace can stop it from reaching us.  But Paul says it doesn’t have to control us.  Grace will help us use suffering to build endurance.  Endurance in turn produces character, Paul tells us, which gives us hope, “and hope does not put us to shame.”  Another translation reads, “Hope does not disappoint.”

William Barclay said, “Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing but to turn it into glory.”  Like the oyster which reacts to an annoying grain of sand by surrounding it with a protective substance, we can learn—with God’s help—to turn our suffering into pearls of hope. 

It would have been easy for the soldiers embattled at Dunkirk, or the British people under constant bombardment to accept defeat and give up hope.  The soldiers would have languished in prison camps, where many would have died.  The citizens of Great Britain would have lived (who knows how long victory might have taken—if ever?) under Nazi control.

It would have been easy for Jim Valvano to give in to cancer, give up hope and pass quietly away.  What an inspiration we would have lost!  Because he fought, many others have been saved by the foundation which bears his name.

Can we do any less?  When God has supplied us with so much grace—grace for every one of our struggles, shouldn’t we, like so many others before us, endure in the sure and certain knowledge of hope  and glory?