Give Up?

GW Yeatman


We have heard the advice a thousand times. If you have fallen get up. I you have failed start over. If you persist you will win. If you try harder you will succeed. Just "buck up" dude, hold on to that bull, ride him until he throws you. Then climb back on even if you are a gored, bleeding mess.

And, oh yes. The famous Winston Churchill speech, “Never Give Up.”

But may I suggest there are times to give up. A fatal disease treated with reasonable aggressiveness but now in the final phase of painful demise. A relationship having exhausted all reasonable means of peaceful restoration. A job well executed yet producing more strife than productivity. A peer group persistently drawing us away from the best that we can be. A venue that inflames our lust for things we cannot safely or morally obtain. A substance that addicts. An incessantly-performed yet worthy activity constantly stealing us from our spouse and family. A personality mask that can't even hide zits. A macho manliness like broken armor inadequately protecting a wounded inner child.

And finally the most important of all, giving up ourselves-our souls. This is the hard one. I am, after all me. I hurt and no one else feels my pain. I want what I want. I go where I want to go. I do what I wish to do. I am in control. I've done it “my way” and I am not about to change.

Might I suggest there is someone who loves you more than you love yourself, who accepts you when you have fallen, who loves you when success has failed to satisfy, when the bull of life has stomped you into the dust despite the antics of a full circus of rodeo clowns.

Let go. Fall where you are.  Succumb to your weakness. Admit that your repertoire of solutions has expired. You are exhausted in body, mind and spirit.

For He is a lifter, a sustainer, an encourager, a physician, a counselor, an advocate, a lover. He is your Father, but he is not a pathological enabler. He lifts only those who have lightened their heavy yokes. He sustains those who feed upon his sustenance. He encourages those who listen. He counsels those who share their burden. He heals those who no longer deny their disease.

There are no conditions on Christ's love or his advocacy. He forces himself on no one. God is no rapist. Your eyes must meet his and he will stare you into a romance beyond all romances. And he will never “leave you or forsake you.” *

Will your dreams be fulfilled? Maybe. Will all your hurts be cured? No. Will you ever again fall? Yes. Then why bother. Because you will find peace for you soul, rest for your body, stillness for your mind.

Bother! Bother because he bothers. His ultimate sacrifice was for you, do not turn him away. He will stand as your final advocate in the ultimate court of appeals and he has never lost a case.

* Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you. Deu.31:8