Hopeful endurance

Imagine a plant that keeps growing during an extreme environmental condition. An example of this might be a cactus that continues to grow in the blistering heat of the Mojave Desert.
This concept helps us visualize a word that is used around 30 times in the New Testament: Hupomone (Greek word). It means, “a hopeful steadfastness, constancy, and patience in the face of suffering.”
«...knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (hupomone). But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing» (James 1:3-4).
«...we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance (hupomone); and perseverance, character; and character, hope» (Romans 5:3—4).
Perhaps you could use some hopeful endurance. Maybe you feel like giving up as you are going through a desert experience: an unexpected diagnosis, a long stretch of unemployment, or a hurtful relationship.
A Bible scholar wrote this about Hupomone, “It is not the patience which can sit down and bow its head and let things descend upon it and passively endure until the storm is passed. It is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope.”
Emma Piechynska, the wife of a Polish nobleman, modeled hopeful endurance. She lived a life that was often filled with frustration and disappointment. I am sure there were times when she was tempted to look up to heaven and say: Why God?
Her biographer noted this amazing character trait about her, «She made magnificent bouquets out of the refusals of God!»
Said another way, because of God’s grace, she transformed disappointment into something meaningful — even beautiful. Imagine if we followed suit and asked: How can I allow the Holy Spirit to transform this situation into something meaningful through me?
My prayer is that God will give you Hupomone- The Hopeful Endurance to endure the desert and not just make it through it, but the power to be like that cactus that stays GREEN in a BROWN environment.