I sat in a chair watching young kids trying to climb a “climbing wall” today for several hours at JBC’s annual “Sportsman’s Show.” There were a lot of kids who harnessed up and made the try. It is a 30-foot high wall with little hand and foot holds. The climbers have a harness attached to a safety rope someone else holds. Most will slip and fall before they reach the top and call it quits when they do, but a couple of boys about 14 years old kept climbing after each fall. One must have attempted it ten times, each time getting slightly higher. I was so impressed with his tenacity and endurance. It takes a lot out of you to climb it once, but ten times must have been exhausting. It was encouraging for me to see young boys with that kind of endurance and fierce determination to succeed. I thought to myself, they will amount to something in life. I also thought to myself that kind of determination is rare. I was doubly encouraged because those boys were my grandsons.

The admonition in Hebrews 12 is to run the race of life with endurance. Life is hard, and those who run without quitting and endure will win.