Run with Endurance: Joni Eareckson Tada’s Powerful Story of Hope

When I was “on my feet,” I spent hours and hours with horses, feeding and grooming, training, and showing them. Horses were my friends. Even after my diving accident, I spent many an afternoon admiring horses from my wheelchair, studying their graceful forms and quiet strength. It’s no wonder God used the example of a strong horse to remind Job of his awesome power and creative genius.…

Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength…In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground (Job 39:19, 21,24).

One of the most beautiful things to watch is a horse at full gallop. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I wanted to capture that movement on paper. This watercolor rendering that I call “Run with Endurance” did not start out as its own piece. It was supposed to be a simple study on how to capture the ground-pounding movement of a horse. For the final composition, I had a much larger piece of paper in mind. But once I brushed the flowing watercolor paint on my study paper, I was so captivated by it that I decided it should be the final rendition.

The liquid grace of this watercolor-stallion became an image of the race I myself was “running,” the one described in Hebrews 12:

Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV).

Godly endurance is not bearing a hard thing begrudgingly. Life in Christ should never be a drudgery, yes, even when we’re neck deep in afflictions.

When, by God’s grace, we courageously embrace the worst things about life, our hardships lead to an ever-increasing endurance; and that steadfast spirit helps us know Christ better. He is even called the “God of endurance” in Romans 15. Endurance is simply patience proved over time (it’s why I often ask people to pray for my endurance).

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:5-6, ESV).

As I often say, “It takes faith to embrace a trial, but it takes endurance to keep embracing that trial time and again.” 

Throughout many decades of quadriplegia, I have never wanted my endurance to wane! Through quadriplegia, chronic pain, and weakening lungs—not to mention run-of-the-mill problems of advancing age—I have sought to turn the hard things in my life into something beautiful, transformative, and glorifying to God. I can’t do it myself. The race I want to finish with endurance can only happen through the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. My hope is not anchored in my fortitude. No, it rests in God’s unshakable, enduring commitment to complete his work of his grace in my life. I can rest in the assurance that Jesus will give me what I need to endure… after all, he’s the “God of endurance.”

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6, ESV.

In the book of Job, God points to the graceful, powerful horse as just one example of his awesome work in a world wearied by suffering. And, just as Job’s perspective shifted by reflecting on God’s might, so does mine when I marvel at a stallion in full gallop. And one day I shall run as freely and gracefully as the horses I rode years ago (and the ones I now paint).

It’s a happy, glorious hope all because I find my endurance in “the God of endurance!”

–Joni Eareckson Tada