Daniel’s Dozen, Part 7: Endurance to the End

So, Daniel was Holy, In the world but not Of the world, Wise, Humble, Friendly, Compassionate, Thankful, Bold and Faithful, no matter the cost. That’s all well and good, but if it lasted for only a week or a few years to then have a slow fade to the opposites, what good was that?

If you later undo your testimony by your life, if the salt becomes saltless, then what? Number ten on the list? Daniel was no one hit wonder. Daniel had longevity or endurance.

From 15 to 90, from King Nebuchadnezzar to Belshazzar to Darius the Mede to Cyrus the Persian (cf. 1:21), Daniel remained on the scene. Kings came and kings went, but Daniel stayed the course. Empires turned over, but Daniel, like his God, was a rock of longevity. His record is an amazing 75 years of walking the walk and living the life.

My boys will often ask of some young sports flash in the pan, “Dad, do you think so and so will be in the Hall of Fame?” I’ll say something like, “Yeah, if he does what he’s doing for 10 more years, makes his teammates better and wins some championships.” In other words, I hold up Tim Duncan as the model of longevity, as the sure Hall of Fame kind of player. Then they understand. Go Spurs Go!

The Hall is reserved for those who were great, over a long haul. I know of no one that compares with Daniel for faithful longevity, not Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul or even the apostle John. Daniel reminds us, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Have you noticed, marathoners don’t really care what they look like. In fact, they look sick and gaunt, especially compared to the glamorous and muscled up sprinters. There is a reason marathoners look strange and pained. They are. One pained marathoner, Douglas Wakiihuri, speaking to journalists, said this: “There is the truth about the marathon and very few of you have written the truth. Even if I explain to you, you’ll never understand it, you’re outside of it.” So it is as outsiders watch our race to heaven.

Most marathoners aren’t worried about being first. All they really care about is enduring the pain for the glory of the finish line. Emil Zatopek said, “We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.” Steve Prefontaine quipped, “Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.”

Like most Christians, nearly all marathoners are unknown, relative to other sports starts. You’ve heard of sprinters Bob Hayes, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Hussein Bolt. You probably haven’t heard of Thomas Longboat or Paula Jane Radcliffe. Like them, we Christians are strangers and pilgrims, obscure, unknown runners on our way to glory while the world for the most part doesn’t notice or care.

Daniel is our model. Daniel is the Old Testament torchbearer of Paul’s famous words at the end of his marathon: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Paul, get in line behind Daniel! I promise you, Daniel loved His appearing!

I’m 44 years old, been in Christ 24 years and in some form of ministry about 20 years. Compared to Daniel, I am just getting started!

Longevity and endurance are huge character traits that lend credence to all the others. Without persevering in the faith, we would reveal that we didn’t actually have true faith. Saving faith by its nature endures. To be saved, we must endure to the end.

I fear too often we quit too easily when things get tough. That’s why I’m impressed with a man you probably have never heard of. Charles Simeon died in 1836 at the age of 78.

He became a pastor at the age of 23, against the church majority’s desire. The parishioners locked their pews and the churchwardens locked the doors. I guess as the pastor he had a key because for five years he preached to bare walls. Not five Sundays but five years! He then endured five more years of strenuous opposition, until he settled in for 45 more years of fruitful ministry under normal strain and difficulty of piercing the darkness and storming the gates of hell with the gospel!

Fifty five years in the same church, the same pulpit, with the first ten incredibly difficult. How easily we moderns become discouraged and quit. Simeon, believing “that the servant of the Lord must not strive”, gave himself to improving his preaching during those sermons to bare walls.

He preached multiple sermons a week for 55 years, putting in an average of 12 hours per sermon. Longevity is not just doing the right things for a day or a year, but for a lifetime.
A simple study was done in 1990. The survey looked to see the results in the lives of children if Mom and Dad attended church “regularly”. If so, 72% of their children remained faithful to church attendance. If only Dad was regular, 55%. If only Mom, 15%. If neither, 6%.
The writer of the report summarized: “The statistics speak for themselves–the example of parents and adults is more important than all the efforts of the church and Sunday School.”
If some church members attended work as regular as they do church, they would be fired.

Nothing is more powerful than your example. Nothing is more damaging than hypocrisy. Live the life, walk the walk and never quit.