Hupomeno is the Greek word used in the New Testament that gets translated into “endure”, as in, endure to the end. Meno means to abide or stay, and hupo means under. So to endure means to abide under. Under what? When the Lord sent the last and most devastating plague to Egypt, He instructed the children of Israel to keep what would be known as the Passover feast. Each household would sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on the doorways of their homes. In this way, the Destroying Angel would know to pass over their homes so that they could remain safe. While there was danger, the faithful were to abide under the protection of the blood of the lamb until that danger passed over them. In other words, the children of Israel were practicing hupomeno, or enduring until the danger was passed. Too often we hear the term endure to the end and we imagine ourselves like the Titan Atlas, trying to hold up under the weight of the world and hoping against hope that we will have the strength to endure and bear up under all of that weight until the Lord decides that we have finally proven ourselves. But it was never our mission to carry the weight of the world, nor even the accumulated weight of all of our own sins and traumas and griefs. The Savior chose to carry all of that weight. He chose to put His own precious blood on the doorway so that the destroying angel would pass over. When He invites us to endure to the end, He is inviting us to abide under the protection of His Atonement. That's all we have to do. Christ has already paid the price. He has already spilled His blood to ward off all of the cruelty and malice and malevolence and tragedy that threatens to destroy us. The storm may rage but if we will just abide under our Savior's sheltering grace, then we can receive strength and succor and healing and hope as we endure in the peace and love and joy of our Savior.
