Hupomone

Some thoughts on the power and beauty of difficulty…

ὑπομονή is the Greek word hupomone, meaning: endurance, steadfastness, constancy, patient continuance (waiting). It means having a brave calm and a steadfast courage amidst trials and tribulations, unwavering from ones purpose, loyalty, and faith under the challenges of life. Hupomone does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. It describes the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with a passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists weariness and defeat.

God wants to call us out into hard and dark places to be His hands and feet to those who are in need. Jesus went out to seek and save the lost. He sought out those who were sick and in prison. He stopped for those who were being stoned for their sins. He stopped for marginalized peoples. He sought out those who were rejected to extend His grace to them, He befriended the women who society oppressed, and He dined with the tax collectors who were despised.

God calls all of us who call our self by His name to stop for those who are in need. God is the God of Justice. He was born as a man and sent to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit (Isaiah 61). The Lord loves justice and Jesus was sent to show us who the Father is, that we may see and understand His heart. Jesus’ heart is for bringing healing, freedom, joy, and righteousness; that it may be done on earth as it is in heaven. His life, death, and resurrection did it all! He paid the price so those who believe can become children of God – our sin not in part but the whole being nailed to the cross so that we bear it no more.

He may call some of us to go into drug dens to comfort those who have been rejected by society. He may call us to go to the brothels to befriend girls who are being enslaved and treated as commodity. He may call us to go to unreached people groups who have killed those who have tried to help them. He will call some of us to go into business or engineering to encourage those who are working long hours. He will call some of us to strengthen broken families by serving them in practical ways.

In order to go, we must be trained in tensile strength. Elizabeth Elliot described a training of the soul she went through, using the term tensile strength. Tensile strength is a measurement of the force required to pull something such as rope, wire, or a structural beam to the point where it breaks. The tensile strength of a material is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can take before breaking. Tensile strength is the resistance to stress, the kind of strength that can bear stretching without tearing apart.

As we follow Jesus, the burdens of His heart become the burdens of our heart. And though His yoke is easy and light and He leads us to lie down in green pastures, He also calls us to contend with Him and join Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, where His heart is anguished over injustice. God wants to train our soul to endure through suffering so that we can be built strong to pour out. And though we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we can know He goes before us. His loving-kindness hems us in. His grace keeps us and will see us through.

If we practice hupomone in the small, daily trials that come our way, then it will train our soul for the heavier burdens that are to come, so that we can stand unmoved in times of crisis. There is a profound power that can be found in difficulty – each time we allow difficulty to train our soul, when we say no to giving up or giving in to self-pity and despair, and when we say yes to choosing to trust in the nature and character of Christ and His promises, then our soul is strengthened for the battles to come.

I am continually encouraged by the example of William Wilberforce, who gave his life to see the ending of slavery. He was an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. It was his patient endurance through the trials and opposition that he went through that led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Wilberforce delighted in speaking Psalm 119 every day on his walk to work. Delighting in God’s truth day by day, rejoicing in the beauty of God’s creation, and persevering in the fight for justice kept Wilberforce going until the breakthrough finally came. It took him 40 years of battling against those who opposed him in parliament to see breakthrough, just 3 years before his death. He faced major opposition decade after decade, but he didn’t quit. He fought to keep his heart tender and filled with joy in the midst of seeing the evils of man and the apathy of the good. He did not become cynical or bitter because there was a hope sustaining him. Wilberforce was no supernatural superhero – he was a mere man who recognized his need for a Savior, allowed Christ to captivate his heart and set him free, and then build him into a rescuer for those who were in need. One of his friends told him, “You will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils unless God has raised you up, unless God has set His hand on you and is for you and behind you.” Wilberforce was able to patiently endure through the suffering and trails that came his way because he went on in the strength of God’s power, doing good, continually sitting before the flame of God’s love and meditating upon the Word.

Endurance comes from abiding in Christ. We must trust that as we surrender to God He will continually give us hupomone to keep us going to the end. The reason why we can have patience in trying circumstances is through hope, which comes from knowing the nature and character of Jesus Christ. We can stand in the place of faith that God will come through, and that we are victorious in Christ. Christ in us, manifesting patient endurance, will compel us forward until the end. Let us stay committed to the battles God has assigned us, whether it is fighting for the ending of sex trafficking, seeking the benefit of the orphaned or homeless, or teaching the truth in the midst of a morally depraved culture. In today’s world, people seem to give up so easily and drop commitments if something becomes difficult. But we must endure to the end in our work for the Lord and our relationship with Him. God, help us to endure the challenges in life with hopeful fortitude. Enable us to plant life under hard and unfavorable circumstances.

“By standing firm you will gain life.” Luke 21:19

“You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might patiently endure everything with joy.” Colossians 1:11

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

“As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Luke 8:15

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-3

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2