I want to thank Tim for inviting me to contribute to Living Stones Unearthed.
What follows is the introduction to my book The Hupomone Principle: Finding Freedom in Biblical Perseverance, along with some commentary on the process that I went through to bring it into print.
-The Hupomone Principal-
I had not thought much about endurance in my first 40 years of life. It was a topic that was meant more for certain sports or for those living through persecution or suffering. Endurance or perseverance was a function of circumstances in my life and not a spiritual value. One could simply avoid the need to endure or persevere by avoiding negative circumstances. I applied the concept more to sitting through boring church services and business meetings than to my day-to-day living.
The roller-coaster life that ensued was destructive to me and to those near me. I structured my life to avoid boredom and to avoid the need for perseverance altogether. The result was a failed marriage and a complete lack of active faith where I perceived the distance between God and me to be insurmountable. When the circumstances of life made me a single dad of two, I realized that something had to change. I did what I always did and battled circumstances with circumstances. I started attending a local church. I stopped drinking and curtailed my social life. While these were all good things to do, they did not address the spiritual desert I was living in.
It took me a few years to begin the long learning process that God had before me—to discover the nature of a godly man. He brought into my life a woman—Allana—who was walking a similar road, and we began to grow together in the Holy Spirit. Still, we moved from job to job and from ministry to ministry as I got bored. But now, it was not just about getting bored or looking for the next adrenalin fix. Each new venture brought spiritual lessons and growth in my relationship with God. He brought me in proximity to some great men of God while also walking with me and Allana through the fires of life’s difficulties. He carefully allowed us to grow and be shaped by the Holy Spirit until we answered His call in 2009 to focus on serving Him as our full-time vocation and relying on Him for the plan and purpose of our lives. We soaked up this new lifestyle and found spiritual guidance in the most unusual places.
In 2013, Allana was diagnosed with leukemia. It was 19 days after our youngest daughter, Nisa Faith, was born. We agonized about how to tell our other children—my two boys, John and Robert; Allana’s daughter, Samantha, who I had adopted; and our nine-year-old daughter, Chayla, our family-blender. Then, early in 2014, God impressed on me the word hupomone as I was studying his Word in Romans 5 and soaking in His Spirit. After a year of walking with Allana through the treatment protocols for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it seemed like an appropriate topic. After all, the key verses about perseverance that we all know are found in Romans 5.
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
—Rom. 5:1–5
Unfortunately, it seems that too often an exploration of perseverance stops with the idea of suffering, and then perseverance and suffering are forever linked as cause and effect. This important quality of life in Christ deserves a closer look. The Bible has a lot to say about perseverance. The word most often translated as perseverance, endurance, or steadfastness is the Greek word hupomone. As with so many Greek words (and English, too, I might add), it is a combination of two root words: upo and meno.
upo: about, under
meno: abide, remain, stay, continue to be, survive, held or kept continually
Breaking it down and putting it back together again brings us to this idea of remaining under or about something. Often, it seems this idea is taken to mean remaining under the problems and trials that life brings. When asked about a trial going on in one’s life, the easy answer seems to be, “We are persevering!” We may not use that word much anymore, but when we distill all the answers we give and all the advice that comes in, it comes down to abiding under the trial until it ends. The problem with this view of perseverance is that it is focused on the trial, the trouble, or the problem, not on our amazing God who is the ultimate solution. Hupomone is not about super-moaning through life as we bounce from trial to trial. Biblical perseverance encompasses Romans 8:37: “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
The source of perseverance tells us a lot about its characteristics. The epigraph at the beginning of this chapter makes it clear where perseverance comes from:
“Now may the God who gives perseverance.”
—Rom. 15:5
Biblical perseverance is first and foremost a gift from God. It is one of those gifts that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:11: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
-The Hupomone Principal-
It would not be until 2017 that the idea of taking this new principle of biblical perseverance and putting it into book form. I had many individual blog posts, articles, and notes from a variety of speaking engagements to work from. So I began the task of collating them both on paper ( or on a word processor) and in my own mind. The writing process for me personally is a little mind-numbing. I typically hate what I have written previously when I pick it up to work on it again or when I proofread it. I started writing projects before and abandoned them. This time I felt like God was calling me to share the lessons that I had learned, so I kept at it. I slowly learned not to burn down the house each time I reviewed my work. Over three years the book came together.
It was in the Spring of 2020 that I felt prepared for the next step. It was mildly expensive but well worth it. I hired a professional editor through an online forum. I was shocked at the quality of the applicants to review and edit the book. I was pretty proud of my work and expected just a few tweaks. I was not prepared for the sea of red that had washed up on my manuscript when it was sent back to me. However, as I looked over the edits and the comments I could see the improvement in the readability and clarity of the book. The editor was awesome and walked me step by step through every one of the edits and comments and the final draft of The Hupomone Principle was done.
It is at this point that one needs to consider the purpose of the project. I never considered the Hupomone Principle to be a money-making venture. With this in mind, I decided not to go to a commercial publishing house. I designed the cover myself and reformatted the book into a form that was suitable for Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. In October of 2020, the book went live. It is at this point that the cat is out of the bag and one sits and waits for a reaction.
As the comments started to come I certainly felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit and a little Godly “I told you so.” I have never actively marketed the book and honestly, I have no idea how many have sold. I do know this, every once in a while I have someone reach out to me and tell me how the Hupomone Principle has helped them grow as sons or daughters of the King of Kings. Amen and Amen.
By the way, if you are one of those who have asked me for a study guide to go along with the Hupomone Principle…. I am working on it… Sort of. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of The Hupomone Principle, it is available on Amazon.
Interested in the Hupomone Principal? You can find the rest of the book here on Amazon, and for more from Samuel Guidry himself, check him out here at his personal blog.