Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory. It is about being in a dark place, asking, “Where am I going” and willing to cross the line once heaven is seen before you.

Back in the year 1822 a little girl, by the name of “Minty” was born on a Maryland plantation. Eighty years later she suspects it was that year. At least that was the year her master recorded her birth. Life was not so easy for the slave born under a master’s roof in Dorchester County. Minty could recall many hard things she had to endure.

Early in her childhood she remembers three of her sisters being sold and led away, never to be seen again. She remembers being given the assignment of being a nursemaid as a young girl. If the baby she was instructed to look after through the night ever cried, she would be whipped. She carried those scars her whole life. One time, she recalls, she was sent to get supplies and there was another slave, a young boy, who was resisting his overseer and began to run off. The man ordered her to subdue the boy before he passed by her in the store but she refused. The man grabbed a two-pound weight, through it, missing the boy and hit Minty square in the face. She said, “broke my skull”, remembering the blood that poured down her face. It gave her such pain that she blacked out. From that injury she experienced seizures and visions to which she attributed it gave her the ability to look beyond.

From bearing all of these hard things she had to endure, she asked “Where am I going?” Much of her understanding came from the stories her mother told her from the Bible. She didn’t care for the New Testament when Paul told slaves they should be obedient to their masters. She preferred the stories of the Old Testament where deliverance was the theme. Perhaps that is why years later she was given the nickname “Moses.” The story has a happy ending. The good news is that Minty escaped. Her success had much to do with her location. There was an imaginary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania called the Mason-Dixon line where on the southern side there was slavery and on the northern side there was freedom, sort of. Many escapees were either captured and returned for bounty or seen as captured property when the Civil War broke out.

Minty took her mother’s first name, Harriet, most common for slaves who wanted to cut all traces. In 1849, at the age of 27 she made her epic journey, of about a hundred miles, later to become part of the “Underground Railroad” and she, Harriet Tubman as the “Moses” who helped many others endure hard things in order to turn it into glory. At that moment, she said,…

[When I knew I crossed that line (Mason-Dixon)], I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven.
She would lead hundreds to freedom over the years, become the first woman spy and lead raids on places like Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, freeing so many who endured hard things. Her song and code given out to others to respond in the darkness of night began, “I’ll meet you in the morning,” and the other would complete the sentence, “[for] I’m bound for the promised land.”

People throughout history have endured hard things for the sake of finding glory. We read about this glory in the Gospel when Jesus crosses the line. He says to his disciples that He must travel from this world to the next and where He goes, they cannot. He tells them, “I have seen the glory of God and I will see the glory of God”, but this is not the way for you because you are not God. We are called to endure hard things. We are called to carry our cross, but to see this glory up close is too much for us to bear. Instead, our calling is to help others escape the bondage of sin by leading them to Christ. Slaves still exist. They are held captive by the pursuit of fame, fortune and thrills. Workaholics, and all other forms of addictions place heavy chains around our necks. God permit all of this. He doesn’t put this yoke on us to break us. He allows us to choose to break free. For many, following Christ may seem a bit like an underground railroad, led by Moses figures, from the powers of darkness into the light of a promised land.

When Peter had that dream of livestock coming down on a ‘picnic’ blanket he had a choice to make. As a Jew he struggled with followers of Jesus. Through this dream, God spoke to him. Would Peter become free? It was his choice to cross the line from what he knew to what he felt was true. It was very hard to bear.

What is it that is hard for you to let go? Perhaps it is because you don’t know what waits on the other side. The troublesome reality of every slave is the question, “Where am I going?” Jesus has already cleared the way. He knows the route. We simply need to trust in Him and let him lead. To trust is to endure and endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.

[1] William Barclay, 1907-1978.
[2] Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York, Brown & Company, 2004.
[3] Harriet Tubman “Minty”, 1822-1913.
[4] John 13:31-35
[5] Acts 11:1-18