Endure to the End

I have read too many parenting books as I try to figure out the best way to raise our children. I have an 'end' in mind-- I want them to be faithful disciples of Christ who are kind, humble, trustworthy, hard-working, polite, and happy; and along the way I'd like them to be good sleepers, good eaters, good listeners, and good friends. In all of my parenting book perusals I am trying to figure out what my rules and discipline and interactions with my children should be to help bring them to that end. There are some things Miguel and I are doing that we are confident will establish good habits and spirituality, but there are a lot of other things that we just think, "Sure hope this works!" 

Heavenly Father also has an 'end' in mind for us as His children-- "to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29), to "be...perfect" (Matt 5:48). His commandments, correction and interactions with us are perfectly designed to bring us to that end. There is no question whether or not it will work; we can have absolute confidence that if we stay the course, no matter the cost, we will be made perfect. That is what the Lord is commanding us to do when He tells us we must "endure to the end" (the end f becoming like Christ) to be saved. 

I love how C.S. Lewis explains this concept: 
I find a good many people have been bothered by what I said... about Our Lord’s words, ‘Be ye perfect’…. I think He meant ‘The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less.’ 

 Let me explain. When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists: I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie, if you gave them an inch they took an ell.     Now, if I may put it that way, Our Lord is like the dentists...Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of or which is obviously spoiling daily life. Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.     That is why He warned people to ‘count the cost’ before becoming Christians. ‘Make no mistake,’ He says, ‘if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect— until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.’"

Despite the unfathomable suffering it cost the Savior, He endured to the end-- the end that we might be made perfect. He asks us to endure to that same end, and He will walk that path with us until we are brought home, whole and perfect. I expressed this thought less eloquently than C.S. Lewis in a poem I wrote a few years ago:

What You Can Be

To fisherman on Galilee

The Savior of mankind did speak

He called to them “Come follow me

And see what you with me can be

Cast your nets and boats aside

And on this path with me abide

You much first come and learn of me

Then follow all that you have seen.

The cost is high, the journey far

To make you more than now you are.

But someday you will be complete

As you kneel worthy at my feet.”