Perseverance: Walking through times of trouble

I drove into Altrincham on Wednesday morning. I set off a little earlier than usual, just as the sun was beginning to rise. I had been awake for a couple of ours, for whatever reason. The sun was just coming up and a warm rain was falling. I was feeling good, despite the many worries and troubles that we are all living with. As I drove towards Altrincham I noticed a beautiful red sky, I remembered the old saying “Red sky at night shepherd’s delight, red sky in morning seaman’s warning” and thought sign of the times. That said it was compellingly beautiful. Then it happened, the sun had risen and I saw it, the most beautiful sunrise rainbow spreading all across the sky. It stretched a broad beaming smile across my face, almost as wide as the arc of the rainbow. What a sight to behold. As I arrived at the chapel I shared about it on social media. What was lovely is that other people witnessed it too. A friend in Stockport posted a picture of it from his tower block in Stockport and another, a friend in Wythenshawe posted a picture of it from his house window. Helen a member at Altrincham, who is on a few days break in Northumberland, said she’s seen one too. Others shared about too. It was a beautiful moment of rainbow connection, lifting our hearts and spirits in these challenging days. I then got on with my day, there is much work to be done.

Summer is over and Autumn is here. The virus and pandemic is not going away and we are having to learn to live with it. This is not easy, having to live with the many restrictions and of course fears for our own health and our loved ones. It is going to be a long winter as we wait for a vaccine and or community immunity. The troubles are not going away, we cannot wish them away and we can’t just wait for arrival at some safe place, somewhere over the rainbow. We have to live and not just grit our teeth and bare this. We have to maintain and sustain our lives and the lives of one another, to endure this difficult time and find new ways perhaps to live. We need to do so as individuals, but individuals who live in community. The idea of looking at the next six months perhaps seems too much and it probably is. We will all struggle at times, we will all feel like we will fall at times, so we need to find ways to help one another through this autumn and no doubt long winter.

No we cannot dream of some imagined place where all our troubles will be over, some heaven, some Nirvana, or Ithaka, some Oz, somewhere over the rainbow. We cannot dream of a Promised Land where all our troubles will be gone. In fact the truth is that even if the virus were to go tomorrow it does not mean that all our troubles in life will be go with it.

So, we are in for a long journey, one that will not be swiftly over. We will need endurance, stready endurance; we will need to persevere, we will need to persevere; we will need to stick to it and stick too it together, if from a social distance. We will need “stick-too-ativeness”. We must not merely grin and bear it though, that would be unsustainable, we need to find ways to live, to find joy in life, we need to find new ways perhaps or to adapt the ways that we already have. By the way have been doing so these last six months. We have stuck at, not merely with grit and determination but also through finding ways to rest and find spiritual renewal. We have asked for help when struggling too, please do not be afraid to cry out, “I am struggling, I’m finding this really hard”, because we have all done so at times, we have all struggled, perhaps particularly these last couple of weeks. None of us have to carry our burdens alone, ok we can’t just hold one another, but we can support one another and we can all help one another to find the practical, emotional, mental and spiritual support that we all need at times.

It is important to remember that we have all been through difficult times, in all of our lives, and we have found ways to stick with it, to persevere and to do so with love and grace and through the journey to be changed for the better and not only for ourselves, but the whole world. So, let’s live in and through and by hope and perseverance through these challenging weeks and months ahead.

Hazrat Inayat Khan said

"All the great persons of the world, whatever had been their mission in life, proved their greatness by this one quality: endurance. The enduring personality is like a ship that can stand storms and winds under all conditions, the ship that saves itself and others. Such blessed personalities, showing the strength of God have been called the saviors of humanity."

We are all the savours of humanity, for we have within each and everyone one of us that same light, let it shine.

How do we endure though, how do we stick too it; how do we persevere? I think it begins by looking around us, looking at our lives and the people we have known. I am sure that we have all known people who have shown an intense commitment to the things that they have done and the lives they have lived. They have been able to do so by sustaining steadfastness even in the face of incredible obstacles and setbacks. I am sure that we can all think of examples in our lives and the lives of others of perseverance.

The word persevere comes from the French word “perseverer and from the Latin “perseverare meaning one who continues steadfastly to the end "one who sees through to the end" and "one who doesn’t yield." These are qualities that all of us need, not just now, but in building a world of love and compassion for all. As Sri Chinmoy has observed: "Patience and perseverance are of supreme importance on any spiritual path."

The problem is of course that fear can blocks in our attempts to stick at it, to persevere. Fear depletes our energy so that we give up on ourselves and perhaps each other. Stress and tiredness, weariness, exhaustion can also bring on these feelings of fear, which is why we need to take good care of our bodily needs in the coming weeks and months as well as our emotional, mental and spiritual ones.

We do not need to persevere alone. We can not only survive but even thrive together, through community, even if we are socially distant. It has been shown that such feelings of endurance can be aided by spiritual practices, religious faith, remaining open to humour beauty, joy, grief, embracing gratitude and forgiveness and practicing self-compassion. Sometimes you just have to stay open, if you do you see incredible beauty, like that sunrise rainbow. We also need community. We need love and support to fully develop our perseverance. This is not easy to do in these times of physical separation, but we are finding new ways to do this. We can’t hold one another and this is hard but we can support one another, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is important to remember that we find greater strength, power and sustenance communally, if from an appropriate social distance. This is our first purpose as a free religious community, we must never forget this. This community is here to help us maintain our spiritual perseverance.

We need each other and folk out there need us if we are to persevere against the struggles in life and that we are witnessing in the world at this time. We also need to be able to be vulnerable enough to admit that we need help as we will all struggle at times. When this happens we need to be willing to ask for that help. There will be times when we will need to let others help us to carry our loads or support us through our struggles. We will need to take time of rest, even ministers. We need this rest, it is necessary, nay vital for us to build the resilience required for the journey ahead.

For all of us there are at times when to simply take the next step, to persevere with whatever our burden is seems to take all the courage we can muster. Past experiences can often stop us dead in our tracks. Fear can block our attempts to step out into the world and back into the adventure of life with all its many challenges. Sometimes it seems too much, sometimes it is. So we surrender, ask for help and then through faith, hope and love we find the strength to persevere, but to not do so alone. Remember we never sail this ship alone. We are in this one together all the way.

As I come to a conclusion I would like to share this blessing by John O’Donohue. It is specifically for the traveller, but I believe it applies to all us as we persevere on the daily adventures of our lives.

..A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

No one knows what the future holds it truly is unwritten, but we not fear it. All we need is the faith, hope and love to persevere, to keep on going and encourage one another top do the same. We need to do so in courage, to journey on with open hearts, minds spirits and souls.

And if you get to witness a sunrise rainbow, don’t forget to share it with others, because they might just need it too.