His lips were cracked and his eyes red-rimmed, and he wanted to quit. He wanted to, but knew he could not and would not.”
–Louis L’Amour (Last Stand at Papago Wells)
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
–2 Timothy 4:7 (NKJV)
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Back at the homestead for a week or so, then hitting the trail again so we have to be getting down to the truth, hone in on it, and take it to heart. Yesterday I used a quotation by Ernest Haycox, “But he knew he would never quit…”
Have you ever had thoughts of quitting? Just chucking it all, tossing life and your job, career, school away? There were a few times in my/our lives that we said, “Let’s quit this mess and head for the high lonesome.” It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle the job, but sometimes the nonsense can become almost (and the emphasis is “almost”) unbearable. Quitting wasn’t really an option; it was just venting of some frustration.
Perhaps you have had a notion that you’re no good–not a winner. Hmm, what is a winner anyway? Is it the person with the most medals? Is it the person with the highest accolades or the most money? I knew a man who made $50,000 a week. Was he a winner? Maybe in the eyes of some in the world, but he lost his family. He went through a divorce and both his kids got hooked on drugs. Did money make him a winner? It may have been Vince Lombardi who said, “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.”
I think of the speech by Winston Churchill where he uttered those quite profound words, “Never, never, never quit.” Did I leave something out? Maybe, perchance, there is a time to quit, to give up, to throw in the towel. Some may say he actually said, “Never give in,” or “never give up,” but the concept is the same. Don’t quit! However, he did throw in an exception, “except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Give up on things that are immoral; give up on things that are unrighteous or wicked; give up on sinful habits and wickedness.
“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to the convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
–Winston Churchill
As believers we could add–never give in to the devil, never give in to the things of the world, never give in to things contrary to the Word of God.
Possibly one of the saddest stories in the Bible was written by Paul toward the end of his life. We know Paul’s famous words regarding the notion of quitting, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7, NKJV) He realized that his life was over and that he was ready to meet his Lord and Savior face to face and receive his reward for not quitting. However, at the end of the chapter he tells of someone who became derelict in his duty–Demas. “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world…” (2 Timothy 4:10, NKJV)
Demas had been a companion of Paul. He had known the way. Paul doesn’t tell us exactly what it was that caused Demas to go back into the world; he doesn’t have to say the particulars but to understand that Demas loved the world. Do not give so much credence to the world that it causes you to quit. John tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NKJV)
No matter what happens–don’t quit. No matter the pestilence, the disease, the plague–don’t quit. No matter how hard the storm rages and the tempest blows–hang on, and don’t quit. Don’t run from life–don’t quit the call that God has place upon you. You may be weary from the fights, the trials, the testing that have come your way in life. Don’t–don’t–don’t QUIT!