It’s terribly hard to endure! Think of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 voyage to the Antarctic. He was only one day’s sail away from the continent when his ship Endurance became trapped in the ice. For ten months the ship was crushed and destroyed by ice pressure. This forced the crew to abandon  ship and camp on the ice for five months. To save his men, Shackleton made two open boat journeys. One of these was a treacherous 800-mile ocean crossing to South Georgia Island, a feat which is considered on of the greatest boat journeys in history. Trekking across the mountains of South Georgia, Shackleton reached the island’s remote whaling station, organized a rescue team, and saved the men he had left behind! Talk about a willingness to endure! The apostle Paul, centuries before, displayed this same spirit. He tells his brethren in Corinth, “We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). That’s a high declaration of devotion, is it not...to endure anything rather than hinder the progress of the gospel? The most notable example, of course, is Christ. He endured. That was the great achievement of Jesus: “For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame”
(Hebrews 12:2). One great weakness of many of us is that we can’t endure anything. We are willing to work hard at a task, but ask us to endure a slight or an injury and we are quick to say: “I won’t put up with it!” The true follower of Christ is willing to put up with all sorts of things. Why? That he may not hinder the spread of the gospel. Question: Am I numbered among that devout group?
—John Gipson