… the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will know.” The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached Him and said, “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” He said, “I will not destroy it.” Once again he spoke to Him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (Genesis 18:20-32)

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     I once heard a story about perseverance. In fact, you might call this the classic example of perseverance. It's a story about an otherwise obscure woman named Margaret Howard. You've likely never heard of her – which is too bad, because her story is worth knowing. Margaret was a woman who had only an eighth grade education, and who was married at the age of fourteen. That doesn't sound like an impressive start to life, but Margaret made a success of herself, and opened a small Christian book store in the little town of Richmond, Kentucky called “The Miracle Book Room.” Someone once asked her why she chose that name for her book store, and this is what she told them.

     In 1964, at the age of seven, Margaret's daughter Becky Ann was diagnosed with an advanced case of encephalitis. After trying all types of treatments, her doctors finally gave up, and Margaret was told (in the wonderful words of the day) that her daughter would be a vegetable for the rest of her life. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. She took the little girl home, nursed her and prayed for her every day. There didn't seem to be a miracle coming. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. One day she saw an article in the newspaper about a new type of operation that was being performed in Montreal – an operation that might possibly help her daughter's condition, Unfortunately, she didn't have the money to go to Montreal, and the operation alone was going to cost about seven thousand dollars. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. Finally, the local community raised ten thousand dollars, and sent Margaret and her daughter to Canada. Unfortunately, when they got to Montreal, they found out that they didn't have the proper papers, and they weren't going to be allowed to get off the plane. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. She finally persuaded the officials at the airport to get her a direct connection with a high-ranking official of the Canadian government. She told them that she had come from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and needed to get her daughter to a hospital. Someone misunderstood and thought that she was an official of the state, sent by the Governor and they sent an ambulance and a limousine to take them to the hospital. The doctors there took some tests and studied the results and then finally told Margaret that the virus had spread to both lobes of her brain and her brain stem, and that her daughter couldn't survive the surgery she needed and they sent her back to her hotel room. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. She went back to the hospital and told the doctors “there's a power higher than you that wants you to operate.” They finally agreed. On September 4, 1964, after nine hours of surgery, Becky Ann Howard opened her eyes. Then she fell back into a coma on September 7. A lot of people would have given up, but Margaret persevered. She kept vigil at the hospital and prayed continually for Becky Ann. On September 17, the little girl awoke again and on October 15, 1964 she was transferred to a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Finally, she returned home and went on to live an almost completely normal life. The Miracle Book Room was named after that experience.

     That was perseverance on the part of both Margaret and Becky Ann. Perseverance is the dogged tenacity that human beings can often display when we're striving to accomplish something that's important to us. Margaret wanted God to simply heal her daughter immediately and be done with it. But Margaret was a woman of rare and special qualities. She was willing to work with the understanding that God doesn't always grant miracles in that traditional way – if it isn't a contradiction to talk about a traditional miracle! In Romans 5:3 Paul wrote that “suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.” This is where the perseverance that Paul tells us perfects our faith comes into play. Margaret's perseverance was a sign of her character and of the hope she possessed thanks to Christ. Are we willing to wait for God? Are we willing to wait for answers to prayer? Are we willing to accept that God may not always answer our prayers the way we want them answered? All these questions relate to the issue of perseverance.

     The reading from Genesis 18 also deals with perseverance. Sodom and Gomorrah were evil, wicked cities – so evil that God planned to destroy them. The people of these two cities were completely beyond any hope of redemption. Nothing could be done with them. But Abraham wasn't so convinced. He thought that surely there must be some good in these cities, and he began bargaining with God. He wanted God to spare the wicked if only he could find some within the cities who were righteous. Now, to God the bargaining was of no consequence. The whole point of the story is that in fact there was no righteousness in Sodom and Gomorrah. As Abraham went through all of his tentative, cautious pleading to convince God to spare the cities for the sake of the righteous, God seems to be giving in, but in fact God isn't offering anything at all. From God's point of view, whether Abraham asked that the cities be spared for the sake of fifty or ten or even one righteous person didn't make a difference, because there wasn't one righteous person to be found in Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course, we need to look at this not from God's perspective, but rather from Abraham's.

     Abraham didn't have the “insider knowledge” that God had about what was in the hearts of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He assumed that there must be a few righteous people there, and he believed for whatever reason that God planned to destroy the cities because of their wickedness. So Abraham embarked on a mission to – from his perspective – change God's mind. He wanted the cities spared, at least in part because he had family members living there. So he began to bargain. “Don't destroy them all” he said. “Don't destroy the righteous with the wicked. If there are fifty righteous people, spare the city.” God agreed, and Abraham didn't stop bargaining. Every time he made a new request, the passage tells us he did it with fear of God's anger, be he did persevere. He talked God down to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, twenty and finally ten. The fact that he wasn't really changing God's mind isn't all that important. It's true – Abraham could have talked God down to one and it still wouldn't have made a difference because there wasn't even one righteous person there – but that isn't important. What's important is the process, and the willingness to persevere even against a God Whom Abraham perceived had made up His mind. Abraham obviously believed there were righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah – he stopped at ten. He thought that would be enough of an escape valve for the people. How God would have responded had Abraham kept going is the stuff of speculation. What would God have said if Abraham had simply said “Spare the cities, even if there are none righteous.” We don't know that, but we do know that Abraham was willing to persevere until he accomplished his goal. That's the key.

     We don't know what would have happened had Abraham kept going until he hit the number zero. At that point God probably would have said “no.” Sometimes God does say “no.” It's said that God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes that's true! And sometimes in ways we don't really like! But there is value in persevering, even if in the end, we don't get what we were asking for. If you haven't received whatever it is you've been asking God for then by all means keep asking. There's value in persevering, and Margaret Howard only got her prayers answered by persevering in the face of very long odds and very tough circumstances. But, if you don't get the very thing you've been asking for, don't give up. Abraham wasn't able to save Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet he discovered that there could be blessing even from prayers that didn't get answered in the way he was hoping, because he discovered that God did hear him. Many people turn to God only in their most desperate times. They faithfully turn to God, and they pray. And perhaps they keep on praying about their need for a few days, and then – they give up. Sometimes they just give up praying; sometimes they give up on God; sometimes they fall into deep anger because God hasn't met their need immediately. The lessons of Margaret and Becky Ann Howard and of Genesis 18 are simple: we have to develop that fine art of perseverance in our relationship with God. Keep going to God even though it sometimes seems easier to give up. Keep going to God, because God is always at work, even if we sometimes aren't aware of it. Keep going to God, whatever the need might be. Somehow, and sometimes only when things are at their worst, the blessings do come. So keep going to God. Keep developing that fine art of perseverance.