never give up

Today we read from 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 in the One Year Bible. And Paul tells us "Since God in His mercy has given us this new way, we never give up."

That gives us some great advice. It's important to keep the first part in mind when we take the second part to heart. You hear people (like Winston Churchill, famously) say "Never give up!" And that's great, except that there ARE times (and things) that we should give up. When I was in high school, I tried out for the basketball team. It became fast apparent that I could not shoot a basket to save my life. Literally. If you put a gun to my head at the free throw line and said, "Shoot this basket or I shoot you," you'd have to clean the floor of the basketball court of some nasty mess. I'm so bad at basketball that I had a dream many years ago that I was on a basketball team that traveled the United States playing against teams in every state. And even in that dream, all of my shots just ricocheted off the backboard and missed the basket. Even in my DREAMS I'm a terrible basketball player!

So yes, I gave up playing basketball. And I think that was a good decision. However, God has called me to write. And when I first started writing (my books), it was awkward and stiff and what ended up on the page didn't sound a whole lot like what was happening in my head. Which is normal for anyone starting a new art. But I knew that God had called me to it. And so I stuck with it. I didn't give up. And now my writing has gotten much better.

What has God called you to do? If you don't know, ask Him. He'll let you know (one way or another). And when you start doing that thing He called you to.... never give up.

God, thanks for calling us to do things, and for giving us the determination not to give up when we're (at first) terrible at them.