Toughen Up

November & December 2025

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Mark Batterson, in his book, Play the Man, tells the story of how, in 1859, a man with the first name of August left Sweden and came to the United States and found work at a Minnesota sawmill. A horrifying accident (a whirring saw blade tore through his upper torso) left such a gaping hole that one eyewitness said they could see his beating heart!

Half-conscious, August was carried to his house and left clinging to life while he waited for a doctor to arrive. Three days later the doctor came, amputated his left arm and stitched up the hole in his chest. Amazingly, the patient didn’t scream or cry or even say, “ouch!” He just toughed it out.

It may have been the knowledge of his grandfather’s toughness that kept Charles Lindbergh awake through the dark, moonless night as he flew across the Atlantic Ocean sixty-eight years later, on his epic journey from New York to Paris. The world was amazed by his courage and fortitude; newspapers ran 250,000 stories totaling thirty-six million words recounting his flight, which one publication called, “the greatest event since the resurrection!”

Lindbergh had no radio or fuel gauge. He just aimed the plane toward Europe and kept going. Sometimes the plane flew as low as 10 feet above the water, other times as high as 10,000 feet; and, he had to fly through thousands of miles of fog over the ocean!

Serving Christ often asks so much of us, it would be    easier to just give up and say, “I can’t do it.” Or, in exasperation we might say, “I won’t do it.” But it will be worth the sacrifices and occasional suffering season when we see Jesus face to face!

Highs, lows, fog-filled surroundings – these accompany the life of faith. Fix your eyes on Jesus, who will receive you with open arms, and keep on flying!