Endure - Introduction

Well, howdy, howdy ho. Ben Greenfield here. Welcome to.

A reinvigoration of the weekly audios that I tend to release on Sunday as a part of my Sabbath Rambling series. For the next several weeks, I will be releasing to you interviews based on the whole concept of spiritual endurance and spiritual stamina. I hope this will be useful for you. It's part of a book project that I'm working on, but I thought that I'd share some of my ramblings with you also very via this particular podcast feed that'll come out on Sunday, sponsor and commercial free. How do you like that? And if you dig these, there's pretty much no show notes. There's nowhere where you can go to leave me feedback. But do leave the podcast a ranking or review if you find this type of information helpful. So that all being said, let's jump in, shall we?

Indoor Introduction There was a time in my life when, rightly so, you'd likely have labeled me as a mildly masochistic, somewhat insane, seriously, hardcore endurance athlete. You know, one of those guys who's likely to be wearing a swimming speedo or cycling shorts under my jeans and running shoes, tucked away under the seat of my car, just in case the opportunity arose to swim, bike, run, or engage in any other form of forward, repetitive, chronic motion at random points throughout the day. In the past several years, I've certainly backed off quite a bit from buffeting my body, so to speak, with bouts of extreme sufferance. But for nearly two decades, I spent a lot of my existence traveling the globe and challenging myself with some of the most difficult and grueling events on the face of the planet. From the famed 72 Hour Agoji race, previously called the Spartan death race at 38 degrees below zero in the backwoods of Vermont, to over a dozen of the hardest Ironman triathlons on the face of the planet, to days upon days spent suffering through Navy SEAL training for civilians on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. Over 5,000 more miles of hardcore endurance race racing, adventure racing, open water swimming, cycling competitions, you name it. This all actually began in high school during seventh grade basketball practice. I remember I discovered I wasn't necessarily the highest jumper or the fastest sprinter on the team, but I could wax the floor with my teammates or competitors. When it came to lasting an entire game without a substitution or just running countless numbers of laps and ladders on the court, it seemed like my athletic talents seemed to mimic my academic talents. I wasn't necessarily the smartest student, but I was definitely the most tenacious. I would study for hours without a break until I had achieved a state of mastery over any given element of academia. From sketching long division and multiplication tables for long nights in my bedroom, to sketching out organic chemistry equations and graphs in college, to playing the same violin concerto over and over again, to reading science chapters until I was blue in the face and quite doggedly and tirelessly never giving up on anything though my base I suppose you would call them natural skills where someone I just worked hard. So when at 14 years old I fell in love with tennis, I began to run the hills behind my family's country home in North Idaho, often trudging uphill for miles at a time day after day, a smile half plastered across my face as I embraced what is oft referred to in the field of endurance sports as the suck while simultaneously experiencing the rush of dopamine, endocannabinoids and all the other feel good neurochemicals that shifted me deeper and deeper into the so called runner's during my high school tennis matches. I was also the guy who could play an all day tournament in the blazing sun on a tennis court surface that could fry an egg, go for a run or hit the gym after the tournament, then wake up the next morning and come back with a big smile on my face ready for more baby. Halfway through my short lived collegiate tennis career, I signed up for my first actual road running race. A 10 mile slog straight up the side of a mountain with the starting line at the bottom of the mountain and the finish line at the top. Although I had no clue what I was doing and I'd never really raced cross country, 5k, 10k half marathon, MAR on or anything of the like in my life, I managed to slowly but systematically plot up that darn giant slope one step at a time with the same grit and determination that had fueled my daily runs up the hills behind my house, passing other runners one by one until I reached the finish line nearly a mile ahead of all my competitors but one, a 50 year old local undefeated phenom who held the course record for that race. While I was beginning to take mental notes, I'd begun to identify what type of activities my body seemed to be really good at performing and my brain seemed kind of hardwired to crave. And of course I had a strong hunch that despite being tall, broad shouldered and more muscular than a traditional cross country runner or skinny endurance athlete might be, I was kind of good at this whole endurance thing. In college I fell in love with bodybuilding, which is arguably based upon the oodles and oodles of sets and reps involved and the amounts of tissue burning lactic acid one practically bleeds out their eyeballs while engaged in that sport, the endurance sport of weightlifting. So for this I typically wake at 4am to train for a couple hours at the gym before my first class of the day, then get back to the gym later that even for intense cardio and interval training to burn off the fat, often stopping at certain points during my academic day to teach spin classes at the gym or swim laps at the University of Idaho pool. Then I had a bright idea. I was already swimming, cycling and running and somewhat burnt out on bodybuilding. So why not apply my skill set to something new, particularly the brutal swim bike run sport of triathlon, the very definition itself of multi sport endurance. So one evening I attended the University of Idaho Triathlon Club meeting and that very night registered for my first triathlon, scheduled to occur three months later. After 90 days of swimming, biking, running and studying up on every nitty gritty dynamic from cycling aerodynamics to hydration and nutrition protocols, I recall standing at the pool edge on the morning of the race, hearing the starting gun sound, then slipping into a state of pure red hot burning intensity for the next hour of my first triathlon. While I had no clue what I was doing, I didn't know how to pace myself and I felt a deep sense of wannabe triathlete imposter syndrome. I wound up being beating the entire field and setting the course record for the competition. After that race I was officially hooked. Over the next Decade I completed 147 additional triathlons in America, South America, Europe, Asia and beyond, including Short Course World Championships, Half Ironman World Championships, Ironman World Championships and a grand total of Because I actually kept track on this website called ATH links, 5569 miles of brutal hot endurance competition. Along the way I sprinkled in additional cross training via marathons, open water swimming competitions, cycling races and even water polo. Just like my experiences in high school basketball and tennis, I was known in triathlon as the guy who just wouldn't stop. I wasn't the fastest. I wasn't the most naturally talented or biomechanically efficient. I wasn't the most experienced. But I just didn't stop. I nearly always start the race in the middle of the swim pack, gradually move my way up through the bike portion of the triathlon and continue plodding on with steadfast determination, clicking off the race markers mile by mile and picking off competitors one by one throughout the entirety of the run. Later, as a trained exercise physiologist, I actually discovered the scientific reasoning behind why my body seemed hardwired for endurance. See, in exercise physiology, there's a concept known as the lactate threshold. Quite simply put, this threshold is the point of exercise intensity at which the body begins to accumulate burning lactic acid. Faster than that, lactic acid can be buffered by the muscles. Once this threshold is exceeded, exercise becomes increasingly difficult and failure or fatigue sets in quickly. But in some individuals, the percentage of maximum pace or maximum effort at which lactate threshold occurs is uncannily high. In other words, let's say that you and I are going to have a foot race over the course of a mile, and let's say you've got a much higher top end speed than I do and can definitely run faster than me, especially for the first quarter or half or so of that mile. I, on the other hand, might not have as much foot speed as you. But while you gradually slow down as lactic acid accumulates in your muscles over the course of that same mile, I'm able to maintain a much higher average speed because I can manage all my lactic acid much better than you can yours, theoretically. So every little bit of that mile, I creep up on you and eventually pass you before the finish line, simply because my tolerance for lactic acid is higher than yours. Perhaps the best example of a famous athlete who didn't have the fastest speed but possessed a ridiculously high lactate threshold is celebrated cyclist Lance Armstrong, who is also known for his grit, tenacity, and ability to just go at a decent pace for very long periods of time at a pretty high speed, but not the fastest speed. Well, it turns out this whole lactate threshold thing is actually testable. And after having undergone multiple bouts of blood lactate testing for swimming, cycling, and running, a protocol in which one exercises at a gradually more difficult pace while stopping every few minutes to test blood levels of lactic acid via a finger prick, I discovered I was actually born with an uncannily high ability to be able to buffer the burn, so to speak. Well, then, if endurance is my jam, I figured I might as well run my winners right? Literally and figuratively. So, over 20 years, from the age of 19 till I was 39, I kept plodding along. I jumped into adventure races, which include map and wayfinding, cave spelunking, kayaking, mountain climbing, swimming, cliff jumping, rucking, trekking, and beyond, all in one Race. I competed in multi mile open water and ocean swim races for years. Really, a month went by that I wasn't hopping on a plane to go off and do some Competition a century 100 mile organized bike ride or cycling competition or triathlon. I became a member of the Spartan Professional Obstacle Course Racing Team and spent four years engaged in that sport which involved everything from hauling sandbags to climbing ropes, to crawling under barbed wire to jumping over fires to swinging from bars and other obstacles. I learned how to shoot a bow and I began hunting competitions that required running and shooting and hiking and more, obstacle course style racing and even hauling over £100 in a backpack over miles and miles of rough terrain while running with the pack on. So yeah, if a sport involved any shred of stamina, steadfastness or sufferance, I'd happily sign up to be at the starting line. And of course, along the way I applied that same stubborn tenacity to academia, to business, and to life in general, often working five to six jobs at a time while sleeping four hours a night. Especially all through college and for several years after starting and building new companies in the health and fitness industry, investing, advising, coaching, consulting and juggling as many balls as I possibly could because frankly, I like to work long and work hard. Bring on the lactic acid, baby. So why am I telling you all this? Because, as you may have predicted, the concept of enduring is a topic that's pretty near and dear to my heart. So yeah, I know. Endurance. It's a language I've spoken for quite some time. But it's one thing to have the physical or mental endurance and stamina required to sit on a hard bicycle seat, to pedal and sweat for six hours, or grit one's teeth through bitter cold ocean waves for thousands upon thousands of swim strokes, or wake up at 4am and strap on a pair of running shoes to pound the pavement for mile upon mile. And it's quite another thing to possess spiritual stamina. Yes, spiritual stamina. So see, in the same way you can train your brain, heart muscles and lungs to resist fatigue, you can train your cardiovascular system to build new blood vessels for oxygen and fuel delivery, and train the central governor in your brain to possess the staying power to keep pushing through no matter how physically fatigued you are or how much your body is screaming at you, to throw in the towel and succumb to exhaustion. You can also train your spirit to resist temptation, to master carnal passions and desires, to combat lust and pride, and to hold fast with perseverance, persistence and patience when all the allures of the world seem to be working in cahoots to derail your spiritual health and your ability to make full impact for God with the purpose you've been given for life. In his book Disciplines of a Godly man, author Kent Hughes writes the statement from Paul to Timothy regarding spiritual discipline in First Timothy 4. 7, train yourself to be godly takes on not only transcending importance but personal urgency. There are other passages which teach discipline, but this is the great classic text of Scripture. The word train comes from the word gumnos, which means naked, and is the word from which we derive our English word gymnasium. In traditional Greek athletic contests, the participants completed without clothing so as not to be encumbered. Therefore, the word train originally carried the literal meaning to exercise naked. By New Testament times it referred to exercise and training in general, but even then it was and is a word with the smell of the gym in it, the sweat of a good workout, gymnasticize, exercise, workout, train yourself for the purpose of godliness conveys the feel of what Paul is saying. In a word, he's calling for some spiritual sweat. Just as the athletes discarded everything and competed gumnos naked, free from everything that could possibly burden them, so we must get rid of every encumbrance, every association, habit and tendency which impedes godliness. If we are to excel, we must strip ourselves down to a lean, spiritual nakedness. Now, unfortunately, as I wrote in my last book, Fit Soul, which you can get for free@fitsoulbook.com while most of us inherently know that it's important to care for our soul with the same lean, spiritual, naked intensity and habitual routine with which a gymnast might train their body, we somehow shove it to the side because let's face it, life gets busy and it just seems far more practical and immediately useful to go hit the gym rather than sit cross legged on the floor floor meditating and praying, spending an extra five minutes in bed in the morning, gratitude, journaling or prioritizing relationships during a long and joyful family dinner, the concept of putting on our spiritual armor and equipping ourselves to withstand all the temptations and flaming arrows that the world inevitably flings at us each day, training our spirit by the grace of God to withstand the pride of life, the pride of eyes and the lust of the flesh, and viewing our spiritual life as a training ground for battle is sadly often an afterthought. Just imagine if you wanted to gain the superior fitness of an Olympian or the chiseled body of a movie star, or the lightning fast brain of a rocket scientist. Would your workout consist of cranking out a tiny handful of push ups before bed each night, eating one healthy meal a week and reading picture books of airplanes to train your brain? I would surely hope not. Yet it can be so simple to stray into a habit of our spiritual stamina and endurance training to consist of saying a simple prayer before bedtime, digesting a few verses or a couple minutes of a Bible or devotional or spiritual text before rushing off to work in the morning or meditating that one time for that one precious social media photo. Fact is, as I also write in Fit Soul, I personally spent about 20 years of my life up until I was in around my mid-30s, barely tending to my own spirit until I realized that my own unhappiness and constant striving for the next big physical, mental, business and personal achievement and obstacle to overcome was simply leaving my spirit even more shriveled, shrunken, unfit and neglected and leaving me unfulfilled, unhappy and unable to fully love others and to make a maximum purpose filled impact with my life for God's glory. Perhaps most concerningly, my lack of devotion to spiritual fitness and all the chinks in my spiritual armor was leaving me wide open to falling, failing and being swept up by, as Galatians 5:19 21 says, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfless ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. Ultimately, in a state of God given conviction, I realized that in order for me to be both truly impactful and purposeful for God to not be a washed up weak spiritual warrior and to be a true father, leader and legacy builder for my family, I needed to apply just as much forethought, seriousness and training to my spiritual stamina and endurance as I had been applying to my physical and mental training. I needed to follow the Instructions of Ephesians 6:1018 which says finally, be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm. Then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted up with a readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the Shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people people. So that's exactly what I did. And while in the first chapter of my last book, Fit Soul, I described to you the entirety of my journey from poverty stricken spiritual d training to wealth infused spiritual fitness, I can give you a brief glimpse now of how I became fitted with the full armor of God, belt, breastplates, boot, shield, sword, helmet and prayer. Ultimately, I began to train my spirit the same way I trained my body and mind. See, I pride myself on maintaining a streak of physically rigorous workouts, often 300 taking a cold shower, cold soak daily, doing three or four sauna sessions a week, walking at least 15,000 steps a day, foam rolling at least 10 minutes every morning, getting a massage at least twice a month taking a carefully selected handful of supplements both morning and Evening stopping every 30 minutes of work to move or stretch for two minutes, reading at least three books a week, writing at least 200 words a day, practicing guitar for a minimum of 10 minutes a day, etc. Etc. Etc. So why not apply that same determination, temperance, and mastery of passions and desires to my spiritual fitness? And what would happen if I did? After all, if I can stare at a blank wall running on a treadmill for three hours, surely I could read a chapter of my Bible each morning, Couldn't I? Could I take the concept of stamina, commonly defined as the bodily or mental capacity to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity, and apply that same concept to my spirit? So I began. I began to attend church on a regular basis, not as an afterthought or occasional visit, but with a reverent and worshipful attitude. I turned to God daily, praying for clarity, wisdom, insight, and a life drawn closer to union with Him. I continued to pray without ceasing throughout the day, and not just before meals or at church. I studied the spiritual disciplines that I taught you in the book Fit Soul and that you'll also discover within this book, and began to incorporate gratitude, service, silence, meditation and scripture memorization into my daily routine. I returned to my childhood love for music and steeped myself in praise and worship songs. I set aside my selfish tendencies and gave more time, tender care and teaching to my wife and twin sons. I read at least one chapter a day from my Bible and followed a Bible reading plan the same way I devotedly follow a workout plan. I memorized at least one verse from the Bible each morning. I gathered my family for gratitude, meditation and prayer each morning and regathered them for self examination, purpose, prayer and thanksgiving each evening. I began to volunteer more in my local community and at my church. I recorded one new worship song on my guitar each month. You get the idea. I began to plan, systematize, structure and apply just as much seriousness to my spiritual training as I would to my physical training had, I say, signed up for an Ironman triathlon. But of course, with the realization that the spiritual race is a race with a far more important meaningful finish line. A race that results results in everlasting glory and eternal happiness found in God and not just some perishable blue ribbon or a shiny gold medal. And the fruits began to pour forth into my life, particularly when it came to me feeling far more equipped to be able to resist temptation. For example, as you'll read in chapter three of this book, one temptation I've struggled with for much of my life has been sexual infidelity, lust and porn. But as I grew closer to God and closer to my wife through my focus on building spiritual stamina, I suddenly found myself able to walk past beautiful, attractive women on the street or in grocery stores, at the gym or clubs or restaurants without nary a thought of lusting after or objectifying that woman or cheating on my wife. When insulted, treated rudely or disparaged by others, I found myself able to respond in a spirit of love and forgiveness rather than becoming angry, lashing out, or experiencing a gut response of bitterness, rage or resentment, finding myself more able to make relationships transformational instead of purely transactional. When stressed or in an unpleasant or annoying situation, I felt myself more free and able to, in the words of Holocaust survival Victor Frankl, choose an attitude of gratefulness, acceptance and contentment, no matter the circumstances. And I'm going to teach you about that satisfaction and completeness in this book. At the end of a hard and demanding day of work, I was able to turn to God, prayer, meditation and worship. Instead of weed, wine, cocktails, kava, or plant medicines for mental relief or relaxation, I became better with patience and delayed gratification, which I'll get into in chapter six of this book. I found myself more purposeful with work and connected to applying my personal purpose statement to loving God and loving others. As I chopped wood and carried water each day, a concept that I'll Explore in chapter 10, I became less begrudged and hesitant and more motivated and inspired to carve out unselfish time for charity and volunteering and giving, which I'll tell you more about in chapter chapter 22. I released my unhealthy white knuckled grasp on control and began to see OCD like tendencies I describe in in chapter two melt away. I became more connected to my family as they joined me on the same journey of morning and evening prayer, meditation, gratitude, service and self examination you'll discover in chapter 16, I stepped into other shoes, more developed heightened amounts of both sympathy and empathy As I tell you about in chapters 15 and 17 and then as you'll learn learning chapters 18 and 19, I discovered more about what really happens when we humans die, how exactly that shapes our lives and the importance of full union with God and perspective on life and deathbeds in general. I danced more, sang more, laughed more, dreamed more and created more in the same way I teach you how to do in chapter nine and as a result experienced a greater sense of awe and beauty in God's creation. Ultimately, an overall sense of peace, love and joy began to saturate my entire day and night. It turns out that in the same way one gradually sees their body morph as they begin to hit the gym each day, or their brain morph as they begin to read, learn new things, memorize facts, or play musical instruments on a consistent basis. A deep and meaning spiritual transformation occurs when the spirit is trained with the same forethought, planning, specificity and systematization as the body and mind. In other words, spiritual stamina is indeed trainable. You too can possess the same steadfast endurance, the same power to withstand hardship and stress, and the same inward fortitude necessary to persist in the face of temptation, failure and stress. But you must set your jaw and prepare for within the pages of this book a journey of patience, planning, acceptance, forbearance, persistence, detachment, tenacity, doggedness, resolution, guts and grit. Just as with any massive transformation in life, you must now view yourself standing on the training field. A wooden bucket full of steel maces and kettlebells and heavy rocks before you, sand pits, hot pavement and steep hills surrounding you, plush couches, free food, icy cold lemonade and a cocktail bar distracting you. And then make a decision as to what path you will choose in the whole scheme of your life, your eternal life. This kind of focus on spiritual training is so, so incredibly important. How important? Well, just look at first Timothy 4, 8, 9 in the Bible in which Paul says for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. Now listen that passage carefully. Bodily exercise and physical training isn't exactly scoffed at as a complete waste of time, as of course that type of training can equip you to be more impactful with the short life you've been given here on earth in your current body, allowing you to better love God, love others, and savor God's creation. But compared to spiritual endurance and spiritual training, it absolutely pales in comparison in importance because training the spirit is an act of building godliness and becoming more and more sanctified each day, with the ultimate outcome being eternal glory and a finish line party that lasts forever. Of course it's easy to think short term up to the 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years we might live on this planet and to train for simply managing our bodies during that time Spanish but it's quite another thing, and quite an exciting thing to consider that you have the ability to be able to train your soul to be prepared for eternity and to equip yourself to bless others with that same forever life. What a great priority in your life that should and must be. Now. I've already given you plenty of resources in this chapter and also mentioned many others elsewhere, like my podcast articles and books featured or reviewed on my website to begin upon your path to spiritual endurance. Like my previous book, Fit Soul, the Spiritual Disciplines Journal and the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun that I mention quite often. But nothing has been more dear to me, and nothing will be a closer and more helpful companion to you, even more than the book you're listening to right now on this journey to self mastery, endurance and spiritual stamina than a Bible. Consider just a few of the verses sprinkled throughout Scripture that you can use as inspiration, motivation and direction for your spiritual training, including no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able with. The temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it or but he who endures to the end shall be saved or blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him or my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience but lets patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing, or strengthen with all might, according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy, or rejoicing in hope, patient and tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Or from Hebrews 12 Therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every way and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls and finally, perhaps two of my favorites from Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens strengthens me and from Isaiah 40:31 but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be wary they shall walk and not faint. So yeah, your Bible is a training manual for spiritual endurance and you can consider this book as a complete guide to getting jump started into that journey. Now it's time to take a deep breath to release your fears about whether or not you'll have enough time to train. Set aside any sense of spiritual imposter syndrome to place place full trust in God that He will clothe and feed you. Even if you're working less to be able to squeeze all this in or even sleeping less or working out less to make your spiritual endurance training a priority and to take that one giant leap forward. Because trust me, this is even more important than exercise and sleep. So if you struggle with temptation and often find yourself succumbing to it, or if you get confused or overwhelmed by the variety of ways one can pray, meditate, read the Bible Bible or be spiritual. Or if you lay awake at night feeling as though although you checked off a lot of productivity boxes at the end of the day you're still feeling restless and unfulfilled. Or you want to live a fully impactful life that inspires others to greatness and defies the sad status quo of what the world accepts as adequate spiritual health. Or you want to ingest more beauty, dance more, sing more, dream more, create more, and experience with a fuller sense of peace, love and joy all of God's creation. Well, well, I don't know about you, but I certainly crave this kind of meaning. However, it doesn't just happen. You must, as I'll be telling you in chapter 11, Trust God and then strap on your sword. We're in this together, you and I, fighting a battle for our very soul. And we must come prepared. So this book, Endure, written and inspired by my own personal temptations, struggles and failures, and informed by what I've studied and learned along the way, will serve as a part of that very preparation for you. Quite simply, it's structured into six parts. First, in Part one, you'll discover common temptations, obstacles, pitfalls and struggles you'll face along the way and learn exactly how to deal with them. Part two will address mastery of passions and desires and how to strike a balance between savoring God's creation and self discipline. Part three delves into purpose and productivity, revealing how to work deep, create beauty, and simultaneously experience rest and refreshment. In Part four, you'll learn how to love others and love God more fully while creatively weaving the Golden Rule into your life. Part 5 addresses what happens at the end of your life and how to find meaning in both life and death. Finally, in Part six, From Simplicity to Laughter, you'll learn more about how to be most glorified in God by being most satisfied in Him. By the conclusion of this book, you'll have discovered and learned how to implement the same tools, tactics and habits for spiritual stamina that were inspired by great philosophy philosophers, thinkers and theologians of ancient and modern ages, including Augustine, Plato, the Apostles, Paul, Peter and John, the Kings, David and Solomon, C.S. lewis, Naval Ravikant, Anthony De Mello, Derek Sivers, Doug Wilson, Randy Elkhorn, John Piper, many, many others, and of course, Jesus Christ Himself. Each chapter will also end with a quick call to action, a chance for you to jot down just a few thoughts about the questions I ask you in each chapter. Summary so it is time for that very exercise right now. Now, let's start. How about you? How's your spiritual stamina? Do you tackle and train it with the same ferocity as you do your body and mind? Do you crave the confidence and protection afforded by living your life equipped in the full armor of God? If the answer to the third question above is not really, and your answer to the fourth question I just ask you is absolutely, now's the time to start. I invite you to join me on this journey through the pages of Endure and to answer the following question for yourself right now? Why do I desire more spiritual stamina and endurance now? In the meantime, for resources, references, links and additional reading and listening material for this introductory chapter, just visit getindore.com introduction.