By PASTOR JAMES MCCURDY Published: July 29, 2017 3:00 AM

I have written about the spiritual life for 26 years. In that time I have like others struggled with my own spiritual journey. It takes everything that I have to stay on the path. The spiritual journey just can't be taken for granted. Just when I think I have it down something comes up and I discover I must change my ways.

Last week I wrote about the need for endurance. That God moves in God's own time. That the spiritual life needs patience. But, endurance and patience do not mean that we are to put up with evil. We must never confuse patience with compliance in the evil that is all around us. Too often patience can become just being apathetic to the pain. People can say "Now is not the time for a change," when really we are saying "I don't want to be bothered with that today, let someone else take care of that."

I get it. No one wants to get involved in a problem that seems impossible to change. No one wants to tackle something that will face opposition. But Jesus, who cured, fed, taught and received everyone in bringing God's love would also say, "I have not come to bring peace but a sword."

To endure does not mean accepting what is wrong. Injustice and inequality are always wrong and must be defeated. It may be years before enough people stand up against an evil that is around us but it is always opposed by God. And since Evil will always seek to get a hold in us we must again give ourselves with endurance and patience to the task at hand even if we may not win the struggle in our day.

In the 1930s the Labor movement won the day for working people to have fair wages and benefits. As a living wage slips away for many we may need to ask God to give us the strength to win it again. As slavery and the states that supported enslaving people we defeated in the 1800s so too we may need to defeat the forces run modern day sex slavery of our children.

With God's help, we will endure and not accept meekly or quietly ignore what we all know is about us. So do spiritual people endure, or do they stand for the right? The answer is yes. We endure and we will stand for the right against the wrong all around us. It will take a long time but with our God, we will not be denied.

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Thinking through the Spiritual life - The-review