10 January

Today's the day when in 1996 Albert Klein of Pasadena, California claimed the record for the highest mileage driven in one car. Most of us are vaguely impressed when someone tells us their car has done more than a hundred thousand miles and the clock is on the second time round. Well, Klein's 1966 VW Beetle had accumulated a phenomenal 1,592,503 miles and was still running. That's fifteen times round the clock – if the clock hadn't worn out by that stage. And that's what I call endurance.

I guess you know some people who are feeling worn out. Maybe they have been going round the block with the same problems again and again and it's wearing them down; maybe they have special responsibilities caring for relatives and friends that demand a lot of them; maybe they are just worn out by a life that's too busy. Why don't you pray for God to give them strength to endure through difficult times. Here's a prayer that Paul prays in his letter to the Colossians that will give you an idea of how to pray:

We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.