Endurance means simply to hang on, to persevere, but fortitude is far more aggressive. It is commanding behavior. Endurance dreams about the reality of victory but, quite to the contrary, fortitude beats the drums and marches straight ahead until it gains its goal.

Paul has three things to say to us about fortitude. The first thing he says is this, "Everyone has problems." Paul, who wrote these words, was a man not unfamiliar with problems himself. He was struck blind on one occasion. He was beaten. He was in shipwrecks. He was jailed. He was stoned. He knew what it was to suffer, just as we know.

It may be the pain of bereavement; it may be the anxieties associated with retirement; it may be some unexpressed desire that is ours or unfulfilled wishes that we have before. It may be the illness of our loved ones. All of us have problems of one kind or another.

You are probably familiar with that old song,
You say tomato (to-may-to) and I say tomato (to-mah-to),
And you say potato (po-tay-to) and I say potato (po-tah-to),
Tomato (to-may-to), tomato, (to-mah-to),
Potato (po-tay-to), potato (po-tah-to),
Let's call the whole thing off.

A young woman was asked to sing that in audition on Broadway. She got up and she began to sing, "You say tomato (to-may-to) and I say tomato (to-may-to)/And you say potato (po-tay-to) and I say potato (po-tay-to)..."

The producer said, "Wait a minute. I think you should go back and start again."

So, she started the song again. "You say tomato (to-may-to) and I say tomato (to-may-to),/And you say potato (po-tay-to) and I say potato (po-tay-to)..."

He said, "Thank you, Miss. Don't you call us, Miss Leveene. We'll call you."

As she turned to leave the stage, she said, "It's not Leveene; it's Levine."

Even people who don't think they have problems, have problems of one kind or another. That is what the Bible means when it says, "In the world, we are going to have tribulation." When you know that everyone has problems, that pretty well eliminates any excuse for self-pity. This is the first way in which we get the dreams pushed aside and get the drums to beating.

The second thing that Paul says to us is this: that we must control our troubles and not let our troubles control us. We are not to whine about the difficulties and the vicissitudes which we know in life.

I don't know if you have ever had the privilege of attending the Special Olympics or not. In 1984, I attended the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and saw most of the major events. It was a wonderful experience but it did not compare one whit to my visit to the Special Olympics. Imagine watching all of these games and never once seeing a false start; never once seeing anyone cry with tears of anger or frustration; never once seeing anyone do anything unkind to anybody else who was competing in the games.

Have you ever watched a blind boy run a race, following the voice of his coach so that he would know in which way to move? Have you ever watched a girl with an artificial leg do the long jump? Have you ever watched a little girl about nine years old who was very heavy in weight and somewhat myopic? She was running a race, 100 yards. She started out and about 20 yards along this little girl who suffered from Downs Syndrome became confused and anxious. When that happened, she stopped. The crowd immediately began to cheer and she started again. Then after about 20 yards, she stopped. Once more the crowd cheered and once more she went on. She did not cross the finish line. She collapsed about 10 yards before she had made it to the tape, but she collapsed into the arms of her friends. The look on her face was something I shall never, ever forget.

It led me to think to myself that there is really no trick to running a race when you can see which way you are going. There is really no trick to the long jump when both of the legs that you are jumping with are your own. Imagine watching men playing basketball -- paraplegics in their wheelchairs, an entire game with a good score and a lot of competition and not one foul throughout the course of the game.

These are people, you see, who do not allow themselves to be controlled by their problems but to the contrary, they control their problems. They are the master of the things that try to master them.

It is very important for us to remember this. It is important to remember the two reasons why people most often don't control what seeks to control them. Their first problem is fear, that is, they are afraid to change things, to do things in a different way.

A little boy on one occasion had his goldfish die. When his father came home, he met him with sobs and tears at the door and the father said, "Well, it's all right. We will put the fish into a little box and we will bury him under some flowers. You can have all of your friends over and then I will take you to the ice cream store and you can have all the ice cream you want and enjoy yourself to the full."

Then they went to get the fish to put it into the little box for burial. When they reached into the water, the fish began to swim. There was nothing wrong with it at all. The little boy looked up at his father and said, "Come on, Daddy, let's kill it." There are some people, you see, who would rather stay with death than make the changes that are necessary to move into life.

The other thing that is important to remember when you are going to challenge the things that are challenging you is this. Remember that you are not doing this alone.

Paul did not write the Letter to the Romans to just one individual. He wrote it to all of the Christians who were in Rome. In much the same manner, we are told again and again in scripture that where we are gathered together, Christ is in the midst with us. He is ready to sustain us.

You are familiar with organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or Gamblers Anonymous or Substance Abuse Anonymous. All of these groups succeed because of people who move together toward a common purpose. There is tremendous strength and power in that. So do not think for one moment when you set out to control what is trying to control you, that you have to do it alone. That is a bad dream. Push it aside. Instead, start those drums to beating and start to march.

The third thing that Paul tells us is very important in the process of building fortitude in a life is to major in following Christ. I use the word "major" quite deliberately because it is the drum major who is out in the front of the parade. We are to follow Him.

He knows what it is to be challenged. He knows what it is to be suffered. He knows what it is to confront difficulty. He was called to the earth and horribly abused for coming here. He was anointed for ministry and rejected by those to whom He came to minister. He offered everything that He could of Himself and of God and of the Holy Spirit.

He poured it out, as it were, to benefit other people, only to have it rejected. He was desperately interested in building a circle of friends and the circle fell apart as soon as He was dead. This One who came to the world as the Prince of Lovers died as one who was supremely hated. Yet, He was the who said, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

You know, it is important to remember that, as Dr. Karl Menninger said a long time ago, "Attitude is more important than fact. How we view a situation is more important than the situation itself."

I remember the one occasion on which I had the privilege of meeting Rise Stevens, the great mezzo soprano of the Metropolitan Opera. She had a very difficult early career. She was pushed aside; she was overlooked; she entered into major competitions which she should have won only to have found herself defeated again and again. But she kept on. She persevered.

One night I had the privilege of standing in the wings as Rise Stevens was singing a recital. The house was packed. The audience was wonderfully warm and enthusiastic and she was given a standing ovation at the conclusion of the performance.

She came off the stage and stood a distance of less than a yard from me. She bowed her head and she began to pray. You could see her lips moving and, being a Roman Catholic, she crossed herself, symbolic of the deep faith which was hers. Then she walked back out on the stage, quieted the audience and said that she was going to sing two last songs and she would appreciate it if there would be no applause. She went on to sing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and then, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

There are situations when we feel that nobody can know the trouble we are experiencing but, thank God, He has the whole world in His hands. He is the drum major we are to be following. We are not to give ourselves to dreams, but to the cadence of the Christ.

A long time ago Calvin Cooldige said that there is nothing more important than fortitude. Talent is not so important. We all know many talented and unsuccessful people. Genius is not so important. It often goes unrewarded. That has become a virtual proverb in our time. Education is not supremely important because we know many educated people who end up being tragic derelicts.

The one thing that is omnipotent is fortitude and that is what we see supremely in Christ and that is what Paul asks us to see in Him and to begin to practice in our own experience. He says, "We are to be in Christ." He says at another point, "Let Christ be in you."

The message, then, is this. Remember, everyone suffers so there is no room for self-pity. Remember, don't let things control you. You control them. Don't be afraid to change those things in your life which need to be changed and reach out to other people for the assistance they can give, the help they can give you as you undertake the struggle which is yours.

Thirdly, follow Jesus Christ. Let this One who displayed fortitude beyond that of any other person who has ever lived, be the model of fortitude for you. His fortitude will move into you as you move into Him and in that strength, you will be able to endure.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you. It is my earnest hope and prayer that you have learned from them that we are to rejoice. Literally, it says, "we are to boast in the cutting and slashing situations that come to us in life because those very situations can produce in us fortitude."

May God bless to you this simple witness in His name. Amen.

Lydia Talbot: Bruce, your message, "Not Dreams But Drums," of course, inspired by Paul, implies some inspiration from Henry David Thoreau, as well. What was that difference for you, as a young man growing up, between your dreams and that cadence, that stepping to the tune of a different drummer?

Bruce Thielemann: I think that things were a great deal different for young men and women who were going into church service at that time than they are today. The church at that time was largely indifferent to major social concerns.

I can never remember throughout all of my seminary career ever hearing anything about narcotics, ever hearing anything about organized crime, ever hearing anything about massive and serious unemployment or growing poverty rolls. I never was confronted with these things and never had to learn to minister to them until I got into the pastorate.

Then, as I have been in it across 35 years now, the situation has gradually become progressively more difficult. The problems multiply and they become more and more complex.

Talbot: How did you get to the pulpit?

Thielemann: I got to the pulpit, I think, largely because of the inspiration of the men I knew who were already there, who had tremendous personal impact on my life. Then many people told me that they thought that I should go into the ministry. The first person who ever said to me, "You ought to be a minister," was my fourth grade teacher. I remember thinking the idea was silly. Even in the fourth grade I thought that and perhaps it was silly. I don't know. I won't know that until I retire, I suppose.

At the same time, I think that is the way in which the Holy Spirit most frequently speaks to us. There are individuals who have had very dramatic personal calls, but usually it is the voices of other people.

Talbot: You are a single pastor in the pulpit of one of the country's major churches, the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. How would it have been different for you had you chosen the more predictable, traditional pattern of marriage and children?

Thielemann: Well, let me just say that I tried to choose that way a great number of times. I have felt throughout the course of my entire ministry that I am incomplete. The scriptures say that it is not good for man to dwell alone. I think that applies to women as well.

I think there is a certain full-orbed experience which comes in the intimate relationships on every level between a man and a woman. I have known that. I stand before you, or sit before you right now, in my sixties and I am still a virgin.

I don't know what it would be like to lie next to a warm body and feel the intimacy of that. I cannot identify with people who talk about the wonder and the beauty and the fruitfulness of that. I felt it has crippled my ministry to people who are in marital difficulties.

I don't have anyone that I can ask questions about what I am doing at the church and know absolutely that they will level with me and say, "It is really poor, Buster. It's really poor." Everybody kind of puts the minister on a platform or podium and they never quite tell him what he most needs to hear. It would be my hope and my belief, speaking as an outsider once again, that my wife would be someone who would tell me the truth.

I remember a friend of mine was driving home one night and his wife said to him, "There are great people in the world, but there is one less than you think there is."