Giving up

Giving up your goal

because of one setback,

is like slashing the other three tires

because of one flat.

 

Have you ever felt like giving up?  I have.  I have wanted to crawl into bed and stay there.  I have wanted to never move again.  I have wanted to avoid all people and all situations that make me uncomfortable.  I suspect I can be rather like and ostrich and wish that I could hide my head in the sand and just not have to deal with it all. 

I am learning to do the hard things in life.  I am learning not to give up completely, no matter what kind of curves live throws.  I am learning that not all people are good.  Some of them are pretty bad.  Some are so willing to hurt others and to make false accusations and to spread lies and gossip in their wake. 

Even those people deserve forgiveness.  Not for themselves mind you, but because I can not participate in the hate and anger.  It affects me way too much and hurts my spirit. 

As I seek to become more Christ-like in all my dealings with my fellow men, I find myself more willing to forgive.  Trusting might be a little harder, but the forgiveness takes the burden off of me and places it squarely back on the person who is responsible. 

I think that too often, we are willing to give something up because it is hard.  It is easier to give in and let go, than to fight to keep it.  I am trying to remember that just because one of the tires in my life is flat, does not mean they all are.  It just means that I have one setback, one moment of tragedy, one short time of grief.  It means that I can still move on and I can still survive.  

I am trying to learn to trust He who has promised me that all will be well.  I am seeing that miracle come to past.  It might not ever happen in my time, but it does happen in His.