But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything

2 Corinthians 6:4-10

Today, as we travel up and down the long hills heading to Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was reminded of some difficulty we had pulling our Airstream through those same hills a few years ago. I remember accelerating down the hills only to seemingly lose most power as we climbed the next. It was nerve-wracking, to say the least. It turned out to be more of a computer issue due to a bad electrical connection than a mechanical one, but in modern vehicles, the computer kind of runs the show, doesn’t it?

Sometimes it’s the hills, sometimes it’s the valleys, but life is full of mountain tops and valleys, right? And are we ever really prepared for the circumstances we face?

The Christian life is one of endurance. It is not a sprint. Paul’s life was a great example for us even today. Paul’s life of adventure was not all marked by highlights and we can learn the importance of endurance through “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger…as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”

After the trouble we experienced in Albuquerque, we didn’t know what to expect, but we didn’t experience any additional problems as we continued toward our destination.

We don’t know the outcome of today’s immediate circumstances, but we can always know God is faithful always and that’s just one of the ways we continue to grow in our faith.