Persistence
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Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa. He was the son of a prosperous wool merchant and weaver. He began sailing at 14 years old and before long he was making merchant voyages to Iceland and Guinea. After much debate and convincing, Columbus finally convinced the king to allow him to seek a faster route to the Indies by sailing across the ocean and around the world instead of following the shoreline. Columbus set sail on this trip on August 3, 1492. This is the first time recorded that anyone had set sail this far from land for this length of time. Columbus believed the earth to be round, but most people of that time doubted him including some of his crew. After 60 days of sailing blindly into the ocean and not knowing what we there his crew began doubting him and wanting to turn back. On October 10th, about 67 days after leaving land his men were on the verge of mutiny. Columbus’ journal entry that day read, “Here the people could stand it no longer and complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best as he could, holding out good hope of the advantages they would have. He added that it was useless to complain. He had come to the Indies, and so had to continue until he found them.” Two days after this journal entry Columbus found land and discovered the new world.
Columbus believed that the world was round, but wasn’t even looking for a whole new world. Yet he sailed on for over two months with the belief that the earth was round and he would find a faster route to India. I wonder at what point most people would have lost hope? Where would we have been after traveling 10 days? 30 days? Would we have turned back two days before finding land?
Columbus was willing to push out into the unknown and in doing so unlocked a whole new world. We as Christians are not pushing out into the unknown, but rather are pushing towards a guaranteed goal. We are pushing towards heaven which is a given if we stay faithful to God. 1 John 2:25 says, “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” Yet many times we struggle with giving up on our goal. Sometimes it is because we are distracted by the things of this life. Other times it is because we follow our fleshly desires instead of following God.
We don’t know exactly when we will complete our journey and make it to heaven. It might be today or it might come 50 years from now. If we continue focused on our goal to the end we will receive the crown of life (Revelation 2:10, "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.") Yet if we lose sight of our goal two days before judgment and turn away from God we will lose everything. It would be such a shame to turn back two days from receiving the prize. We know heaven is real. We know that God has promised it to us if we remain faithful. Therefore we must trust Him and follow His will. We must, like Paul, bring our bodies into subjection lest we be a cast away (1 Corinthians 9:27, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."). Columbus found America because he was not willing to give up. It is that same type of persistence and our faith in God that will get us to heaven.
