Whatcha Got

Colossians 1:11-14  May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.


Endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father leaps off the page at me. The Christian reality as lived by Paul seems so foreign at times as I look at the modern world. Earlier in my life I experienced hardships that required endurance. Life was hard and life looking up seemed a long way away. Patience was needed and sometimes even found in the midst of those problems. I'm an internal person and have said so often to others that it is mind over matter. I could often calm the insides for a time even when life demanded endurance. I found however and observe frequently that joy only existed in moments separated from the trials of life. Paul says they exist together and I did not get that, and I most certainly was not thanking the Father in those situations that required patient endurance.


The most important part that I missed was we are qualified to have those patient endurance with joy. It's like young people today who get pre-qualified for a mortgage before they start house hunting. The Father has pre-approved of us for our entire life and waits with patient joyful endurance for us to accept his love. Our ability to have the power and strength to have patient endurance wit joy is among the gifts we have been approved to receive. 


I cannot claim to experience this reality at all times, but I mean it when I say that God gives us the ability to be unshakable in the face of trials and difficulties. We need not be tossed about at the whim of the universe, the God of the universe is on our side. I discovered that's what I got!!