Quitters never win

There are days when you want to quit. You look at what you are doing with you life and realize how minuscule, inefficient, and meaningless it seems compared to the grand scheme of things.

What you want to quit varies according to the day.  Often it is a job.  If I remember correctly, working generally consists of 80% insults,  1% positive feedback, and 19% insults you just haven't managed to overhear yet.

I remember as a student, the idea of quitting seemed blissful at times. As a student you spend a majority of your time scrambling to learn something, only to realize next semester that you are scrambling so hard to learn this new subject that you can't remember a thing you learned last semester.

"Being nice" is another occupation that tempts quitting to the extreme.  Sure, sometimes, doing the right thing can be gratifying, but often, it means holding the restaurant door for the entire lunch rush because it seems nobody else's mother trained them to take the door as they walk through.

I am ashamed to admit that often "Serving others" is also high on my quitting list, at times.  I want to make a positive change, and when I am met with an overwhelming service need, or change is overly resistant, I am quick to throw my hands in the air and claim that my efforts are pointless, that no one would even notice if I did quit, that nobody could truly succeed in this particular effort.  It's just a drop of fresh water in this world's ocean; the osmosis takes over, and the ocean engulfs the raindrop as though it never happened.

We want to quit when we are dissatisfied with the results of our efforts.  I have realized that I am driven heavily by results, and while this can be a good thing, it is also a foothold for the devil, if I am not careful.  I get caught up in the results, rather than the process, in the gratification, rather than the integrity.  When I lose my focus like this, I become vulnerable to the voice that says, "Don't bother. Walk away. You're not up to the task.  Nobody cares what you do anyway. They're all laughing at you.  Other people are taking the easy way out and getting rewarded for it."

Why bother? Going to school is just going to make you a more educated unemployed person with extra debt. It's useless: trying to make friends in a time of life where it seems most people have set their life up just the way they want it, leaving few vacancies.  Why buy a homeless person lunch when that one meal is not going to heal an addiction, clean a record, restore hope, provide a job, education, and apartment?...it will just be one meal. Why tithe when 10% of little is even smaller?  Why study, you just can't understand it.  Don't waste the effort, you cannot calm someone else's storm, you cannot soothe the turmoil of someone else's soul.

What I forget in the midst of this acidic discouragement is that it is not important whether I see the results of my actions. It is not necessary for me to know the justification of obedience. What is important is that I mind my actions and my attitude and make sure that they are righteous. It is important that I find my righteousness in Christ, and that in Christ I find the desire and strength to be obedient, to love without demanding gratitude, to give without the attitude of ownership, to live in such a way that my God is glorified through me, rather than besmirched by me.

Sure, there are some situations that really do need quitting, but most situations just need courage and gumption. I am realizing that in those dark moments of whatever topic that is haunting me, it is when I want to quit the most that I need to rebel against those urges. I need to work harder, fight smarter, focus better, and in a few days, weeks, months, when it does not feel so desperate,  I need to re-evaluate the situation. Otherwise, I am saying, "Here, Satan, I tied my heart up on this string, and even put a loophole for your finger, enjoy! Jerk it as you please. There's probably an awesome mud hole filled with broken glass nearby to drag it through." And that just doesn't seem smart... or pleasant.

What is this blog, a cry for help? you ask.  No. It is just me reading a lot of books, living a lot of life, and thinking a lot of thought.  It is me calling out all those sometimes-wanna-be quitters--including myself-- in situations large and small, and hopefully encouraging us to recenter our focus, and remember what truly matters in the long run.


To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—  to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.    Jude 24-25

Thanks for letting me meander.