The power to endure

I'm sure I'm not the only one who found myself crying at the incredible determination and achievement of John Bishop.  It leaves me with a question: what is it that enables us and empowers us to endure?  For John it was perhaps a sense of outrage at what he witnessed in Sierra Leone and an overwhelming desire to do something in the face of insurmountable injustice.

 Perhaps it was the vision and hope offered by the little girl who wanted to grow up to be a lawyer, or the tragic death of a small child from a diarrhoea related disease, or the anguished cry of her mother at the realisation of her loss.  These may have contributed to the impetus to even dream the impossible.

 What enabled him to succeed was the incredible support he received from all those that helped him run, row and cycle, the crowds that pledged financial support and turned out in the dark and the rain to cheer him on and the belief of those on his team that despite the physical trauma, he could continue, he could endure.

What about us?  what gives us the power to endure?

Perhaps the thing we all have in common with John is our need to live a life beyond ourselves, to be motivated by making a greater contribution, to leave a legacy for our children.  Perhaps we all actually have a sense of calling, a higher purpose that in the "noise" of everyday life has become drowned out.  Perhaps the greatest thing we can all do is to connect with that calling, discover that higher purpose and fulfil our destiny.

The power to endure can be found in unlikely places, perhaps we should all start to become more attentive, more attuned to where ours could come from and then perhaps we could take our ordinary lives and become as extraordinary as John Bishop is.  Perhaps too we'll discover that as we step out and step forward, others will come and cheer us on and keep us going and we'll realise that our destinies are more connected than we'd ever realised and that the power to endure ultimately comes from our connection to a greater purpose that we achieve together.

Grand words?  Idealistic?  Perhaps.  But what if, like John we all possessed the wherewithal to attempt and even achieve the seemingly impossible.  Perhaps we have more in common with the stand up comic from up North than we realise.  Perhaps there resides within all of us some greatness that yet needs to be discovered.