Perseverance

by: Adam Stout

Emperor penguins seem like carefree, fun-loving, tuxedo-wearing creatures. But they’re not just cute animals. They’re tough birds. A female emperor penguin will lay one egg and give it to the male to incubate for winter. Then the male penguin joins 25,000 other males. They move into a close-knit circle to survive four months of Antarctic winter. Finally, the female comes back, picks her spouse’s voice out of the crowd and takes back the hatched chick. The male, nearly starved to death, waddles 100 miles to the ocean to eat again.

When I think about the emperor penguin, I cannot help but think of the perseverance James talks about in chapter one. James says, “The testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

When God seems close and the world around us is bright, we have strong faith. But what happens when the sun goes down and the wind picks up, when the snow whips about our faces and we can scarcely see two feet in front of us? In the winter of our despair we may wonder: can God hear me? Is Christ coming for me? There is no obvious answer. After all, faith “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Yet James tells us to endure trials with a sense of joy, knowing they may lead to deeper maturity in Christ.