By one o’clock on this summer afternoon, the Canyon was hot. That day, across the Singing Hills playfield, I saw groups of sweaty Laity Lodge Youth Camp staff and counselors suffering—and bonding—as they completed the famous Murph workout, a traditional Memorial Day workout done in honor of Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy.   

Guys grunted and groaned and fought their way through one more pullup, while others stood behind them waiting their turn. Next to them, girls were doing pushups on a towel to avoid burning their palms on the hot pavement. Further away, another group found shade and were bobbing up and down as they counted off their squat reps. And past them, if I squinted, I could see the last wave of runners coming in from their mile-long run.   

One staffer, Kris Allen, did the whole thing in Chaco sandals. He later admitted to me, “Yeah, that wasn’t a great idea. It was brutal.” But I watched as he finished the Murph through to the end.    

Summer 2025 was the first year of the new Hupomone Challenge. Hupomone (ὑπομονή) was one of Howard Butt Jr.’s favorite Greek words. Back in 1984, he explained it to guests at Laity Lodge as “patient endurance that is not just gritting your teeth or holding on with your fingernails. It means that whatever tough situation you are in, you wrestle the potential out of that pain, out of that difficulty, and out of that trouble.”  

The word often appears in the New Testament describing the patient endurance of Christ. In the book of Hebrews, the word describes people of faith, stating that we should “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The entire first chapter of the book of James centers around hupomone. James encourages people to view trials as opportunities for growth, hope, and perseverance.  

So, staffers memorized and recited the first chapter of James to their directors as part of this summer’s endurance challenge.

Enduring hard physical challenges is good for us. Exercise, especially long-term training, supports brain function, growth, and plasticity. There are obvious health benefits as well, such as improved mood (thank you, endorphins) and reduced risk of chronic diseases.

We aren’t born resilient. It’s a skill we learn over time. As Howard mentioned, it’s not about avoiding pain and difficulty; it’s about finding the potential in that difficulty and pushing forward.

The Murph workout traditionally consists of 100 pullups, 200 pushups, and 300 squats sandwiched between a one-mile run at the beginning and the end. It’s no cakewalk, even for the fittest of athletes, and on that humid day in the Canyon, I saw some momentary suffering—but I also saw young adults learning their limits and sharing the burden.   

Several staffers were partnering up and splitting the number of reps. Others were exchanging one movement for another, like sit-ups instead of pullups. Knowing your limits but still pressing on or knowing that you don’t have to do it alone can mean the difference between reaching the finish line or not.    

The staff also witnessed their leader, Executive Director of Laity Lodge Camping Programs Cary Hendricks, doing Murph right alongside them, except he wore a weighted vest. Halfway through his reps, Cary moaned, “When all of you are done before me, and you see buzzards circling, come check on me.”  

Just before jumping into the river, staffers Stella Hendricks and Briley Aunspaugh told me they woke up early that morning and completed one of the hikes together. The staff spent their downtime doing hard things together—and this was a hard and heavy summer for many at LLYC. 

The H. E. Butt Foundation’s campsites in the Frio Canyon remained safe, but LLYC felt the weight of the July 4 floods that swept through the Hill Country. Many campers and staff grieved for people they knew, for their homes, and for their hometowns.  

Singing Hills Director Dayton Whites says counselors often serve as stand-in parents, especially for the youngest campers. One fourth session dad dropped his kid off and said, “We’ve been to five funerals this week.” LLYC counselors and mental health staff entered into that grief with campers.  

When staff are focused on caring for campers and bringing joy to their summer, it’s easy to forget about themselves. That’s why continuing this year’s endurance challenge was a priority for Dayton. “It provided structure for the counselors and staff to also take time for themselves,” he said. “It was something to focus on and ground them… a nice throughline of being able to finish out a hard but rewarding summer.” 

With the banks of the Frio closed for much of the summer, the Hupomone Challenge had to pivot. Runs and hikes replaced the long swims until sections of the river slowly reopened in the final summer sessions. Through it all, the challenge didn’t stop. In many ways, the altered task list acted as a symbol of hupomone itself—pressing forward with constancy, even when the path looks different than expected.