Strength in the Long Haul

The Cultivating Reader – Literary Leaf-Mould provides a fresh source of recommended books gathered from classic and contemporary Christian authors. I will introduce you to varied genres through the ages — classic literature, poetry, and inspiring non-fiction. You may find a good cookbook here and there, because breaking bread together over a good read builds fellowship. My prayer is for you to set aside time alone or with friends to linger over good words.

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14b ESV

Many years ago, my husband lost his job and we bought a food truck. I will save you the details of how and why we invested in this business, years before the food truck renaissance we are witnessing today. Our food truck was set to a weekly circuit in a warehouse district, selling breakfasts and lunches to the truckers, office folk, and construction workers in the area. The day began at 3 a.m. set-up. We cooked, drove, sold, drove, and finally tore down at 2 p.m. But the day wasn’t over at that point. Supplies needed to be purchased, repairs made, and food stored or thrown away.

Our children were young: 12, 2, and a baby. My husband would fall asleep during dinner and go to bed soon after that. Our eldest daughter and I would stay up and make sandwiches, soups, and desserts for the truck. (It was her first paid job.) Any burger patties, leftovers, and outdated items that weren’t sold my family and I would freeze for our own meals. By all appearances, this food truck was our future, for however long the business held out.

We soon learned that the individual who sold us the truck had shown us sales figures based on an inventory that went beyond ham sandwiches and snack cakes. He had offered gambling, alcohol, and worse. In the face of that discovery, we vowed to never fall into that trap, even if it meant that we would barely break even. Customers wondered why they couldn’t get cigarettes or lottery tickets, but my husband chose to run a God-honoring business.

One freezing night as he was prepping the truck at 3 a.m., he spoke to the darkness. “God, I’m exhausted and trying to do the right thing, but I’m done with You. Go away.”

And He did. A cold wind whipped around the corner, filling the alley and sweeping over my husband; then came silence and an incomprehensible vacuum of loneliness. To this day, we chuckle uncomfortably. My husband admits there may have been better words to throw at God at that moment.

This was a dark time for our family. We were so tired, nearly broke, and living on leftover lunch-truck food. We wondered, what was the purpose in it? Before this long chapter was over, we bought a replacement truck that nearly bankrupted us, grieved the loss of our fourth baby, and faced medical challenges that would keep my husband from working for days. We chose to pray and persevere, laying the days in God’s hands, witnessing to others with every mercy.

We’ve talked about those days with the clarity that time provides. When we were in it, nothing made sense, but we were looking at the moment, not the timeline. A series of events brought us to the lunch truck and then created a path into the next chapter of our lives. Along the way, we discovered how to make good meals with leftover food. Our daughter still makes “Poor Man’s Meat,” hamburger patties simmered in a sauce of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and a can of tomato soup, and served with instant mashed potatoes. We knew that the intangibles were most important. And our kids learned what it means to face overwhelming odds and plow through them strengthened with resolve, prayer, and trust in God for such a time as this.

Perhaps you are familiar with Esther’s story in the Bible. She was an obscure orphan living with her uncle in Susa during the time of King Ahasuerus. Miraculous events led Esther to eventually become queen and she saved the lives of her people. Her story began before Queen Vashti refused the king. In fact, the book of Esther traces her lineage back to the time of Nebuchadnezzar! She was part of God’s plan for generations before her birth and changed history for centuries afterward, born for such a time as this.

Her story, and yours and mine, are part of God’s narrative. God plays the long game, calling us to endure with strength and courage while we live out His plan.

We trust, He provides. These books that I have chosen for you, dear reader, tell the tales of strength in the long haul—moment-by-moment resolve. Deciding every day to look at life square in the eye, pray for strength to our omniscient, omnipresent Father, and then carry on.

1. To read of perseverance through chronic illness, read The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor by Jonathan Rogers.

Flannery O’Connor is remembered as a leading 20th century author in the Southern Gothic genre. Her writing challenge readers’ emotions, biases, and beliefs. Her characters are a collection of ne’er-do-wells, misfits, criminals, manipulators, and pitiable cases. Many readers do not know that she was a devout Catholic or of her long struggle with the disease lupus. Her faith informs her stories in a subtle manner, presenting the reader with darkness and bright mercy. O’Connor wrote what is credited as her best work while living at her Georgia farm. This wonderful biography opens her own story to us so that we understand the heart behind her work.

2. To read of complete trust in our mighty God, read The Autobiography of George Müller by George Müller.

This autobiography, written in diary form, impacted my prayer life more than any modern text. George Müller (1805-1898) begins his book confessing his struggles with worldly passions and his return to his faith. His daily entries detail his plan to create schools for orphans in the area of Bristol, England and show Müller’s embodied unwavering faith in the providence and faithfulness of God, fully trusting that the Lord would provide for every need for thousands of orphans: food, clothing, shelter, and education. A true story of a life of uncompromising faith.

3. Read about continuing fortitude in the darkest times in The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.

This is the familiar story of the ten Boom family, their call to save Jewish people in the Netherlands during WWII, and their enduring courage as captives in Hitler’s concentration camps. Corrie’s unshakable faith and fortitude exemplify how the love of God rescues and strengthens us at all times and circumstances.

4. Feel awe in the fortitude of William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity by Kevin Belmonte.

William Wilberforce was undaunted by the call to serve others, acknowledging that God went before him. Shortly after his spiritual transformation, Wilberforce wrote an entry in his diary stating that “God Almighty has placed before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners [that is, morals].”[1] Although these tasks took years to accomplish, he stayed the course and accomplished both, eventually abolishing the slave trade and slavery in England.

5. For a clear view, stand On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis by Louis A. Markos.

Like Frodo, who was chosen for the task of destroying the One Ring, most of us will endure our own Mount Doom experience that leaves us curled up in the ashes of agony. Then we look back in wonder, thinking, “HOW ON EARTH did I get through?” We only find what we are capable of when refined in the fire of hardship.

6. Beauty in the journey is found in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

What is most important, what makes life beautiful, is invisible—faith, love, peace, kindness—things you can feel but not explain with mere words. But we cannot comprehend the numinous unless we become like children with wide-eyed innocence to see. This transcendent story resets a weary heart.

Our lives are not snapshots but cinematic experiences filled with plot twists.

Pray for courage and strength in fortitude. Your earthly time is a part of God’s continuous story arc. Your life is a necessary piece of His timeline of creation, fall, redemption, and resurrection. You matter—all that went before you wrote your experience and all that follows will be touched by your life, continuing on until all things are made new.

“But,” she said, “this is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for a future that only He can see.”—Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place [2]

Endnotes
[1] Kevin Belmonte, William Wilberforce – A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan, 2007), 97.
[2] Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, 35th ed. Edition (Chosen Books, 2006), 12.

The featured image, “Rose Hips in Autumn Dawn,” is courtesy of Lancia E. Smith and is used with her glad permission for Cultivating.

Annie Nardone

Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is the Director of Visual Artists for The Cultivating Project and columnist for Cultivating Magazine. She is founding board member, managing editor, and author for the apologetics quarterly, An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found as travel blogger for Clarendon Press U.K., with published poems at Calla Press and Poetica.

She holds a MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University, and is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute. Annie writes for Cultivating, Literary Life, and Clarendon House Books, and is a managing editor and writer for An Unexpected Journal. Annie collaborated on three books in 2022, published by Square Halo Books and The Rabbit Room. She recently designed a curriculum detailing the intersection of theology, the arts, and history and is a Master Teacher for HSLDA. She resides in Florida with her Middle Earth/Narnia/Hogwarts-loving family, and an assemblage of sphynx cats and feline foundlings.

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