Nothing seemed to be going right.
There we were, miles from the closest town, sitting on the side of a hill that overlooked a small reservoir and scrambling to pack up our gear before another storm hit. The rain was falling in sheets just down the valley from where we were. With every minute that passed, the storm continued to stalk us, growing closer by the mile.
This storm was just the icing on a very bitter cake that was our summer camping trip.
For 5 days we endured relentless thunderstorms and pelting rain, gusty winds, wildfires, smoke, closed roads, fishing bans and campfire bans. There were scraped knees from falling down a hill, pinched nerves from sleeping on the unlevel ground and wet clothes from slipping in a lake. And don’t even get me started on the swarms of biting flies.
“What is going on here?” I asked Jesus. “Can’t we catch a break? Does everything have to be hard? Why can’t we just enjoy a nice summer camping trip?” I paused. Listened. The aspen leaves fluttered in the wind. The sun ducked behind the ever-darkening clouds and shadows grew long across the grassland before me. I sat quietly, waiting for a response.
Eventually, I heard a whisper, “even in the mundane, I have called you to endure.”
Ah, there it is. The answer. I knew it all along, I just needed to be reminded of it again. Part of my calling in life is to do hard things. Whether that is persevering through a 7-hour thunderstorm while huddled in my tent or watching my husband gasp for air in a hospital bed with blood clots in his lungs, God has called me to persevere. Enduring the little things, like a camping trip gone awry helps prepare me for the big things. If I can’t endure in the mundane, how can I ever hope to endure in the significant?
Can suffering actually be a calling? Would a good God actually call his faithful followers to suffer? Yes and yes.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
1Peter 2:21
Suffering is a high calling. It was the highest calling of our Savior. Jesus was not spared and neither will we. He is our true and perfect model for how to continue on when life is unspeakably hard.
Some of us see more of it than others. Some have daily reminders of this calling to persevere. Some can’t remember a time when life was easy or simple. That’s ok. Jesus’ life wasn’t easy or simple either, you’re in good company. Through Christ, we can endure the chronic pain, terminal illness or wayward camping trips.
When you endure in the small things, you learn to endure in the big. As we persevere in the commonplace, we are strengthened for the uncommon. God sees your daily perseverance. It does not go unnoticed. If suffering is a part of your calling in life, He will equip you to continue pressing on, in the big and the small.
In Christ, we can endure all things big and small.
