When You Have to Keep Going

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Barbara Harper

There’s an often overlooked incident in the life of Jesus’ disciples. Mark 6 is packed with action, like the rest of his book. Beginning at verse 7, Jesus sends the disciples out to preach and heal. There’s a brief parenthesis where we learn of John the Baptist’s fate. Then the disciples return, and Jesus tells them to come and rest. They go away on a boat, but people see them and run ahead of them to meet them where they landed. Jesus has compassion on the people and teaches them for a while. Then He feeds over 5,000 of them from a boy’s small lunch. Jesus sends the disciples ahead in the boat and then goes to pray. Then He sees that they are having a hard time on the lake. He walks on the water toward them and calms the wind.

The gospel writers don’t always record events chronologically, and they don’t record all the same details. But if things happened in the order and timing as it appears in this chapter, all of these things happened in one day. The chapter and verse divisions and headings, which weren’t in the original manuscripts, are helpful but sometimes cause us to read each section as an isolated incident instead of realizing they’re in a particular order for a reason.

But the overlooked fact I mentioned is this: the disciples apparently didn’t get the rest Jesus called them to in verse 31. We don’t know how long they were in the boat trying to go to “a desolate place.” Maybe some of them got a catnap on the boat. But it appears people got there before them, eager to hear Jesus again. So after already ministering for a while, they ministered again, helped pass out food to the people, and traveled by boat again against strong winds.

God has made us limited creatures in need of rest. We sleep about a third of the day, trusting that the world can get along without us for a while and God will take care of everything while we’re out. He built a day of rest into our week from the first week of creation. He scheduled Israel’s yearly calendar with feast days–holy days, which became holidays.

But sometimes that rest is disrupted and we have to carry on. When I became pregnant with my first child, I knew about morning sickness, but I wasn’t prepared for how tired and drained I would feel. I was working full-time and could take an occasional sick day, but I couldn’t check out for my whole first trimester. I sometimes went back to a stockroom to lay my head against a shelf for a few minutes before I went back to my assignment.

Then came the “zombie days” of little sleep with a newborn in the house. I tried to catch up on sleep when the baby napped, but I still had to get up to tend to him whether I was tired or not. That was exacerbated when the second baby came and there were fewer opportunities for rest with an infant and preschooler in the house. Then with three children and a husband at work or out of town, I couldn’t take “sick days” when I wasn’t feeling well.

I’ve read of people in war time, in POW camps, in various situations where they have had to endure beyond what seems humanly possible.

Sometimes in life it is noble and necessary, and even spiritual, to push through. Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, ““Most of the world’s work is done by people who don’t feel very well.”

But when I contracted transverse myelitis, my body wouldn’t let me do that any more. I had to rest up both before and after any event.

Though my stamina improved, with age and other health issues, I try to schedule rest in-between activities and events. I can feel overwhelmed when there are too many things going on too close together.

However, despite my best efforts, sometimes unexpected appointments or activities crop up. Just looking at the calendar, I don’t see how it is all going to work out. But nothing can be changed. What do we do then?

We tell the Lord about it. We ask Him for wisdom and strength. And then we trust Him to provide what we need to carry on.

We rest in passages like Isaiah 40:29 and 31: “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. . . . They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

We trust that “as your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

And we lean on 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

We don’t recklessly over-schedule ourselves as if we had no limits. But when things pile up that seem more than we can handle, we trust Him to provide what we need. Sometimes that means getting help from others. Sometimes that means seeking wisdom for what can be removed from our plate. Sometimes that means relying on God for strength beyond our normal capacity. And no matter what else is going on in our lives, our hearts can rest in Him.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Testing

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Barbara Harper

For most of my husband’s professional career, he worked as a lab technician and then a lab manager, first in the textile industry, then in plastics.

Part of lab work involved troubleshooting problems as they came up. But when the company developed new products, they had to be tested.

In automotive textiles, for instance, fibers and fabrics need to maintain their color despite being hit with bright sunlight for years. So the lab had a weatherometer to simulate so many days of sunshine to see how soon the fibers would fade.

Other tests involved metameric properties: looking the same color in different lights. Automobile manufacturers wanted a car’s color to look the same in sunlight, under the showroom’s fluorescent lights, and in the homeowner’s garage with incandescent lighting. There was a brief exception to this for a time when some cars were deliberately painted to look like they changed colors as they passed. But even then, I believe the interior colors remained the same.

Fibers were also tested for tensile strength: their ability to be stretched or pulled without breaking.

Sometimes were tests were diagnostic. The technicians needed to know the properties of the fibers to discover their weaknesses in order to strengthen them or improve them.

God might test people for the same purposes. He knows our weaknesses and whether we will pass or fail our tests. But often we don’t know until we fail. Like Peter before Jesus was arrested, we feel confident in our devotion to Him. We’re even warned to watch and pray, and, like Peter, fall asleep instead. And then when the temptation comes, we fall on our faces and weep bitterly.

But when we fail a test, God doesn’t reject us or pull us off the assembly line. He uses the failure to make us aware of our need for dependence on Him. If we respond in the right way, we draw even closer to Him because we realize how much we need Him.

However, some tests don’t expose weaknesses: they reveal strengths. Manufacturers like to advertise that their products have passed tests. College entrance exams show that a student is ready to handle the challenges of university learning. Military, police, and firemen all have to pass rigorous tests to prove they can handle their jobs.

When God pointed out to Satan that Job was a righteous, godly man, God knew how Job would respond. Though knocked to the dust in sorrow and coming to some wrong conclusions, Job’s faith never faltered. Even when he questioned God, he was still expressing trust in him. His example of facing intense suffering has encouraged Christian for centuries.

Likewise, Joseph endured the cruelty of his brothers, being sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten, with a grace few of us could manage. His conclusion that God meant for good what his brothers meant for evil has helped many Christians come to the same understanding and to trust God even when life seems unfair and doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes our tests are not just for us. When we see how others weather their tests, we’re encouraged that surviving and thriving are possible. That’s why we listen when someone like Joni Eareckson Tada speaks. She’s been through the fire and found God faithful and good.

Being a good testimony through our tests doesn’t mean putting up a smiling front or keeping a stiff upper lip. The psalmists poured out their confusion, frustration, and fears to God. It helps to read that others have wrestled with the same questions and feelings we do. That’s part of their testimony as well as the resolutions they come to.

If fibers were sentient, they might consider the tensile test was torture. But the technician isn’t being cruel. He doesn’t want to destroy the fiber. He doesn’t want it to fail. He has every hope that it will pass the test so that it can perform the function for which it was created.

God does not test us in a clinical or dispassionate way. He has our best interests at heart. He wants us to grow and develop in the best way we can. Like a parent, coach, or teacher, He stretches our endurance so we may grow stronger and more dependent on Him. He wants to show others, through us, that His grace is sufficient.

The Bible encourages us to endure testing joyfully:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7).

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

And when the tests are over:

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you (1 Peter 5:10).

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).

Will our faith remain vibrant, or fade under pressures and trials?

Will our colors remain true, or change with circumstances?

Will we endure without breaking?

Not in our own strength. But “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

May God give us grace to endure testing for His glory.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the articles that resonated with me this week:

Love Is a Skill, HT to Challies. “Anyone who has tried very hard to love other people well will know that love doesn’t always feel very natural. A lot of times it feels more like hard work.”

The Problem with Reading the Bible Verse-by-Verse, HT to Knowable Word. The verses divisions, subheadings, footnotes, charts, etc., in most of our Bibles “break up the text into little chunks (often arbitrarily), and we do not naturally read in little chunks, we read in big chunks. You read ordinary books section by section, not word by word, but all the footnotes and verse numbers condition us to read the Bible verse by verse.” Those tools are good for study later, “but the first and most important rule for interpreting and appropriating any biblical book is to actually read the book.”

Dig Deeper, HT to Challies. “Think of the scriptures like a fancy layered dessert — maybe a cake or parfait. There are several layers, and each offers new delights. If you don’t dig down into all the layers, you’re missing out.”

A Call for Endurance and Faith, HT to Challies. “We are not without encouragement in times like these, and sometimes the call for endurance comes in ways that seem strange to the contemporary churchgoer who has enjoyed religious freedom all their lives.”

What Does God Want of Me? HT to Challies. “But what I do remember are the three questions that came out of this difficulty, questions that my husband raised in the midst of this trial to help provide us with direction and guidance. These questions have stayed with me ever since, and have given me clarity and lessened my burden in a wide variety of situations: problems with children or other family members, issues in my marriage, dilemmas in church, personal trials, and more.”

Is Your Way Really God’s Way? ‘While the Bible is heavy on function (what we are to do) it is light on form (how we are to do it).” This article helps discern between form and function and the errors of insisting on our form of doing things.

Protecting Your Teenagers Online, HT to Proclaim and Defend. “We have a pool in our backyard. We also have young children. What steps do we take to protect them? 1. A fence; 2. Swim lessons; 3. Supervision.” Kristopher Schaal then applies these three levels of protection to internet usage.

Cultivating Attention: The Challenge of Reading Great Literature, HT to Linda. “As a literary critic, writer, and professor, I have the great privilege of working with literature every day, and helping others to encounter the beauty of great stories as well. Evangelization and discipleship through beauty is vitally important for our modern culture, for God is perfect Beauty as well as perfect Goodness and Truth. Stories, poetry, and all the arts can help us both to grow in our own faith and to share that faith with others in a compelling way . . . But it’s not easy. Many readers find themselves discouraged, encountering a gap between their desire to engage with great tales and the rather more difficult reality of the experience.”

Why the World Needs Readers (Like You), HT to Linda. “I’ll be honest. It’s in my own self-interest to say that reading is important. I am the author of a book blog, after all. But I believe—passionately—that reading is more than your average pastime. Much more. Here’s why I think that readers, people like you and me, are critical to preserving civilization—and helping it flourish.”

How an Introvert Does Thanksgiving, HT to Linda. “As a large and diverse group, we introverts love our families and the holidays no more or less than anyone else. So the fear and loathing with which we sometimes face this season is not an intro-aversion to the whole concept of family or holidays. It’s more the specifics of the experience that exhaust us; many of us are right now anticipating Thanksgiving with equal parts of delight and anxiety. Yes, pie. But also forced togetherness, lots of chitchat, and old family scripts replaying again and again. It’s a tradeoff. So, before the holidays flatten you like a runaway truck, perhaps take a minute to sort through their delights and the stresses to sketch out some strategies for Thanksgiving so you can enjoy more of the former and less of the latter.”

I Could Never Get Grandma’s Dressing Quite Right—Until She Was Gone, HT to Linda. “Back then I hadn’t yet learned that the most important thing about cooking for other people is the joy your food can bring them. . . .that on Thanksgiving, it’s a waste of time to roast a whole entire pumpkin for pie (the canned stuff is superior anyway!), and that investing in six great dishes is far better than churning out 12 I’m too exhausted to actually eat, and that turkey tastes approximately the same no matter what you do to it.”