Giving Up

Giving up- it seems to be a common theme in the world around me. I have certainly felt like throwing in the towel with some aspects of my life lately. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes back in December and have drastically changed my approach to eating. My life has changed in terms of routine and I have had to begin some annoying rituals that sting and leave my fingers sore. For the first time in my life, I am on a medicine regiment and it is annoying to have to remember each dose. Man, it sure would be easy to give up and eat what I want and forget the blood checking and pills. Wouldn't that be convenient and serve my desires?

Community is tough. Getting a handful of people to agree on something and see the significance of something is like pulling teeth sometime. It would just be easy to give up when there is tension and disagreement. When things don't fit into my square, it would be easy to walk away. I have certainly felt/thought that lately.

When the world puts Christians under the microscope, it is easy to feel insecure about our beliefs. The enemy wants us to give up.

When things are difficult and what was once fun has become mundane and routine, it's easy to just seek out something else. This is when we start to neglect commitments, promises, and just give up. We started up the mountain but the climb just gets more strenuous and it is certainly easier to repel down than it is to climb upward.

I am baffled at how easy it seems to just abort mission these days. It all seems to point to selfishness. I'm not happy, I want adventure, I want freedom. The focus becomes on getting out of circumstances instead of persevering and seeing the work God is doing in the season. The problem is, if our lives are built on how we feel, we will just leave people, projects, communities in our wake as we pursue happy feeling after happy feeling.

Giving up. It's so easy but, it's not rewarding. It is self serving, which isn't loving (1 Cor. 13)

Dying to ourselves is one of the largest barriers between us and God and one of the biggest things that prevents perseverance.