By endurance conquer

Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. -  Job 38:29-30 kjv

Three bearded men walked down from the mountains on South Georgia island, their clothing dirty and ragged. Encountering three workmen, they asked, “Would you please take us to Anton Andersen?” The foreman explained that he wasn’t there any longer and had been replaced by Thoralf Sorlle.

One of the men said softly, “Good, I know Sorlle well.” When they arrived at his house, Sorlle himself opened the door. “Who...are you?” The man in the center replied, “My name is Shackleton.” There was a dull silence as Sorlle tried to process what he was hearing and then turned away and wept.

Standing before him was Sir Ernest Shackleton, who by then had been given up as dead. It was May 1915. Fourteen months before, Shackleton with a party of twenty-seven had left England, planning to cross Antartica from a base on the Wedell Sea to McMurdo Sound crossing the South Pole.  The fact that no one had ever done that didn’t faze Shackleton. His family motto was Fortitudine vincimus, Latin for “by endurance we conquer.” And that is how his ship was called Endurance.

When he arrived at the village of Stromness, his troubles were far from over. Determined, he fought to save the lives of the twenty-two castaways on Elephant Island. Three attempts failed. But on August 30, 1915, Shackleton’s ship was sighted, and their prayers had been answered.

The ship was aptly named because endurance was what it took to bring his men home safely. In a day of quick fixes and instant solutions, may God give us more of that spirit of endurance that keeps pressing on no matter what the cost.