As the 88th Academy Award for best actor was announced and Leonardo DiCaprio stood on his feet after finally getting the award after 6 nominations, the whole world celebrated and realized just what it means to persevere through various failures.
I'm not sure if Leo is strong in his faith toward God (or at least as strong as his belief is toward global warming), but it's pretty clear that he knows how to persevere. In fact, he probably knows how to persevere more than most Christians who would experience the same amount of failure that DiCaprio has been through.
Can Christians today learn how to persevere that way? How can we build an active audacity to endure through failure? Romans 5:3 tells us that we are to "rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."
God calls for Christians to rejoice in sufferings. God is not calling Christians to be sadomasochists in this scripture. He isn't telling us to be happy that we're suffering, but to be happy through our suffering and being expectant, knowing that suffering will result in greater things.
In the earlier verses, in verse 1 and 2, Paul says "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
What is it that makes us persevere through hard times? Is it because Christians are more audacious? I think it's pretty clear that the world is full of audacious non-Christians too. Is it because God gives us a special blessing and anointing? It could be, except that God's grace is also common to those who don't believe.
What truly stands as a basis for greater perseverance is the deeper knowledge of the grace of God displayed through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the greater access we have to His grace simply by knowing and believing that it is by Him that salvation comes.
And the salvation I talk about here is not just salvation from hell. If God's grace is big enough to cancel out the consequence of sin and hell, it is more than sufficient to bring salvation for times of failure and misery.
God never promised that you will never fail if you believe in Him, but He does promise that though you will fail, His grace will be sufficient to help you rise from the ashes and persevere through Him. I don't know what helped DiCaprio persevere through five losses, but I know what will help you persevere through dozens of losses -- that's the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
