As we weigh in the options to leave or keep fighting we can do what Jesus did. We can pray. I know that doesn’t sound like the solution we are looking for. But although the cup wasn’t removed from him, he did get the strength to stay, Luke 22:43. And let me tell you, it takes a lot of strength, strength from above to stay. We think quitting is courageous but I think staying takes more courage. But that’s what God does. He gives us staying power as he did his son. 

We are living in a world that glorifies quitting for better options. They say if you don’t like that job then get another one or go into business. If that man isn’t meeting your dreams then leave, girl, and get into the market. If that church isn’t giving you the experience then hop to another one or stay at the bedside a few Sundays. This goes against the grain and culture of our parents and theirs before. As we poke holes in traditional beliefs we quickly seem to throw out everything we consider old-fashioned. Any sight of a possible green pasture or any smell of something toxic and we are out of the door. But are we doing better for it? Are we more fulfilled than our parents who held on to one or two jobs for the rest of their lives? Are we happier moving to the third divorce? How are we finding that fourth congregation that we are now part of? These are hard questions and there may well be times when quitting is the best and most godly thing to do. But I think we are doing it so quickly.

Sometimes I wonder where our world would be if the people who came before us were quitters. Where would Christianity be if at the first sign of trouble missionaries got into their ships back home? Where would our democracies be if at the first sign of resistance they caved in? What about the world of medicine, technology, invention and innovation? Almost everything we enjoy today took years of hard work to come to be. It was born out of sacrifice and a hundred failures before the one success story. We sit now and type on the shoulders of those who labored hard without quitting. We preach the Gospel of which many shed their blood so we could hear it. We live in countries established on the blood of martyrs. The question is what will outlive us beyond the comfort we now enjoy? Will we join our heritage of hardwork and commit to something to the end? Will we fight the battle at the trenches sometimes despairing of life itself? Or will we quit because it’s just too hard?

Think about Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane.

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