EChO

EChO (Endurance, Character, Hope)

Years back I wrote this off as over-simplified.  Sure, we gain hope when we suffer; but to list a chain of production from suffering to hope seemed too perfect.  I forged ahead with my emptier philosophy of life.  But from the vantage point of 31 years lived, This short piece of the text has become one of my most cherished writings.  

The opening words of this claim force us back to the statement preceding it: “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.  The context is hope.  A hope described in a way that makes me think of future victory when my God defeats evil in a new and final way.  The word glory also makes me think of power and goodness.  I take comfort during life’s stressors, that my God is strong and righteous.  

The thrust of the next thought is jarring: “We rejoice in our sufferings”.  How can that happen? Feeling delight in experiencing pain sounds like a sick way of life. Even rejoicing while suffering seems borderline ridiculous.  A great hope is required for this rejoicing to be appropriate.  A hope that will be identified at the end of the thought.

Next we see the meta chain the ancient author lays out for us.  I do not think it is intended to describe every circumstance every time, I do think it lays out a powerful reality.  When we suffer, we gain the ability to endure.  In enduring, we build character we never knew before.  By our new character we gain hope.

I love the closing piece.  The hope we gain will not embarrass us.  It will not let us down once we finally decide it can hold us up.  And we know this because God’s love is flowing through our beings by the Holy Spirit who we received.  

ESV from Romans 5

“...we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces 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”