Who wants to speed through life anyway?

Why is it so easy to give up? I can’t really call my self a quitter in all honesty, but I can call myself a procrastinator about things that haven’t worked out the way I thought they should. If I have worked and tried really hard to accomplish a certain goal, and I hit a wall in the process, many times I’ll set that goal aside and work on something else. And while I could claim that I’m just taking a break (and that can be healthy), sometimes I wonder if it’s because a part of me has given up that I will ever succeed.

 

Giving up is easy. Maybe that’s part of the human condition. Maybe because our vision is limited we think when we arrive at an insurmountable task, it’s a sign that we have already lost the race and should just bow out gracefully. But from what I’ve witnessed, there are no odds that are truly insurmountable. I’ve seen people achieve things that would blow your mind. And those same people had every right to give up, but they didn’t.

Tortoise at the Sedgwick County Zoo – Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is Philippians 1:6.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

When God begins a process, He doesn’t stop until it’s finished. And that process will be complete when we leave earth and go to heaven, either by natural death or the Rapture. But until that day, God is working on us. Teaching us. Chastising us. Walking beside us and living live with us.

But some of us are harder to teach than others. I don’t know about you, but I’m the most stubborn person in the world. And I have lost track of how many times God has had to teach me the same lesson over and over again until I finally get the point.

But the issue here is that God never gives up on us.

It doesn’t matter who we are or where we came from or what our preferences are. It doesn’t matter if we like hard rock music or classical. It doesn’t matter if we don’t eat meat or if we prefer to eat our meat with a side of meat. Once we have accepted Christ as our Savior, God begins a process in our lives to help us become more like Him. And that doesn’t happen over night. It’s a long, slow journey.

And sometimes it feels like you’re not making any progress. Sometimes it feels like God is asking more of you than you can give. Well–yes, He is. Living the kind of life that Christ lived is impossible in our own strength. So if you try to live like Christ did without asking God for help, you’ll fail. But nothing is impossible for God. And no goal is insurmountable with Him on your side.

There will be days when you have obstacles in your path. And some days those obstacles will seem to be definitive. But on those days remember that you have a choice. You can choose to give up; that’s up to you. But if you persevere, it will be worth it. Because you’ll not only succeed, God will be able to show His strength to you and you’ll think twice before you doubt Him again.

The journey may be long and slow, but you’ll get there. And at the end of your journey, you will have learned so much and seen even more. The old fable about the tortoise and the hare isn’t always true. Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race because sometimes fast is just fast. But I can guarantee that even if the hare had reached the finish line first in that old story, the tortoise still would have enjoyed the race more.