Persist, persist, persist. Why these words? Why threefold?
I haven’t written for several weeks – it has been a difficult time personally, with the mixed emotions surrounding the death of my dad and the self-given task of conducting his funeral. Those who have read my ‘Secrets’ pages will understand why I could not listen to anybody else eulogise about my dad, particularly someone who didn’t know him and know the circumstances surrounding our relationship.
It has then also become increasingly difficult to find the right words in the face of everything going on in our broken world at this time.
Like so many, I suspect, witnessing the onslaught on Ukraine has broken my heart and to be honest, it also filled me with some sense of foreboding.
As we listen and watch the news reports, and as social media is filled with the horrific reality of the invasion, it would be easy to let anxiety take over, but we cannot do that. In the first instance I believe we have must follow the example set by the brave people of Ukraine and persist, be determined to fight for what we believe. For the vast majority, that does not mean making Molotov cocktails or picking up a rifle, it means standing steadfast against injustice at any level, supporting the aid agencies and helping those who continue to flee their homeland.
For those of us who call ourselves Christian, it also means remaining steadfast, persisting in our faith and putting our trust in God, who sees all and understands all because He walks beside us through all. We live with the sure and certain knowledge that He is by the bedside of the injured, holding close the grieving and providing strength and courage for those who are risking everything, as they persist in the defence of their families, their homes, their land, their freedom.
We who are miles away from the conflict must also persist in continual prayer and in whatever support we are able provide, individually and collectively, for the plight of Ukraine.
My mum instilled in me the words: ‘We do not quit’. Only in later years, when I realised how much these words meant to her and how she lived by them in the face of everything my dad put her through did I really understand the enormity of what she was telling me. She wanted her daughter to have the strength to carry on.
And so today, however difficult a situation might be, my reminder to self and to each and everyone who takes the time to read here is ‘persist, persist, persist’.
Persist when life seems unbearable, persist in the fight for what is right, against injustice, persist in faithful prayer.
Fight for what is right on every level and do not give in. Persist. Do not quit.
