Stay the Course

“Patiently endure, no matter how long.

Continually persevere, no matter how hard.  

Bravely remain, no matter how it looks.

The goal is worth it, stay the course.”

Loren Thornburg

Often in traffic I get impatient and take a detour to try to avoid waiting.  Yet, what I find is if I had stayed the course I would have gotten there faster than my detour.  You see there is a reason I was going that way in the first place; it’s the best way to go.  Stay the course is an idiom that means to persevere in the midst of difficulty because the desired outcome is worth the obstacles met along the way.  It is thought to have originated with sailors having to endure harsh weather knowing they needed to stay the course otherwise they would get lost at sea.  Arriving safely meant they had to endure no matter how difficult.  Even with all of our technological advances and navigational systems there are still storms we can’t avoid.  I am talking about much more than traffic or rain now.  Life brings all kinds of hardships.  Rather than try to find a way around it let’s “stay the course” and go through them.  The goal is worth it...stay the course.  

“What a gift to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end.  That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.”

James 5:11 MSG

James was writing to encourage believers to persevere.  With patient endurance he calls them to follow as Job did.  It is important to know why.  Not why the storm is happening, but why He is calling them to stay the course.  James calls it a gift.  It’s a gift because of what God does when you patiently endure.  You can have staying power (as the Message calls it) here knowing that God cares down to the last detail.  The detail that you think doesn’t matter, the little thing that doesn’t seem a big deal, it all matters to Him.  He cares about the little things, He cares about your details, He cares about you.  So patiently endure, stay the course, and look to Him for staying power.  It’s worth it!  It’s always worth it...right down to the last detail.