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"And they came, bringing Him a paralytic carried by four men. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by cutting through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Mark chapter 2, verses 3 through 5. Now THAT is perseverance. They could have tried waiting, swarming like the rest of the crowd when they saw Jesus coming out. They could have hoped that selfless people or an act of God would blaze a path through the mass of people filling the building. They could have been disheartened and gave up in seeing that they could not reach Jesus. They COULD. But they DIDN'T. I don't know if many people would even consider this, and Jesus must have been shocked, but instead they break through the roof of the building to interrupt Jesus to heal their friend. It's not they who needed healing-- in fact, what they did could have gotten them in big trouble. Still, they took the risk for their friend, and in their faith they persevered till they got the desired outcome. Would you go so far as to cut a hole through a roof to interrupt the man who has power over life and death, just to get your friend what he needs when no doctor nor medicine could ever heal him, with God knows what potential penalties hanging over you if someone with authority doesn't like that-- all the while surrounded by countless numbers of people staring at you? How far do you go to get something done? How deep is your perseverance?