When the Going Gets Tough...Just Quit. Really?

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Here's one that goes against everything we've heard. According to a study published by psychologists Gregory Miller and Carsten Wrosch, when it comes to hard times, we had better just quit or it could affect our health.

In their most recent study, published in the September (2007) issue of Psychological Science, the psychologists followed teenagers for a full year. Over that time, individuals who did not persist obtaining hard to reach goals had much lower levels of a protein called CRP, an indicator of bodily inflammation. Inflammation has recently been linked to several serious diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, suggesting that healthy but overly tenacious teens may already be on the road toward chronic illness later in life. 

So, their answer was to just quit. I do wonder if they quit the first they couldn't get their funding for this study, or was it just handed to them on a silver platter. Maybe the trust fund families do have it right...make everything easy for your kids. Maybe then, they'll live longer. But I have to ask the question, what kind of life is that?

It was Martin Luther King, Jr who said, "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." (For more quotes on "struggle"). So, I have to wonder if it is the struggle that makes our life worth living. Life should not simply be breathing. It should be much more. Life is about finding our purpose in life and moving on that purpose in order to become all we were intended to be.

Thank goodness, they found out more than only how to stay alive. They found out that people that didn't quit found out that life is more...so much more from that same study:

While they did not find a direct link between re-engagement and physical health, they did find that people who readily jumped back into life had a greater sense of purpose and mastery and were less likely to ruminate about the past.

As we have been studying, examining, and agreeing to become more generous people, the first discovery we made was that to become who were intended to be, we were going to have to struggle to get our finances in order. Ouch! Yep, that's right, in order to be a generous person who can meet needs when they come up, we've got to get out of debt. Friend, that doesn't happen without a struggle for most of us. That's why we can't just give up. There will come tough times for all of us for all kinds of reasons. We've got to learn to push through in order to be all we were intended to be. To really be able fulfill the purpose we were intended accomplish, there will always be a struggle. It is probably a strong force of being able to live life to the fullest.

The Apostle Paul, of all people understood that when He encouraged Timothy during a tough time in his life:

All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we're in. 1 Tim 1:18-19 (MSG)

So, as we choose to obey God, there will come a time when you are “tested at the point of your obedience.” It is that moment when you find out what you really believe. It is then that you will have face a struggle. Will I push through and let God use me or will I just quit? For me, that moment happened earlier rather than later in life.

My wife, Kelly, and I had just arrived at seminary in Wake Forest, NC. We were doing what God wanted us to do. We were still in the wide-eyed, head in the clouds moment of our desire to do God's will. We had moved several hundred miles from home and had no way to return. After a week or so, my ministry position had still not come through; no one would hire me; and all our bills were coming due with no available means of money to pay them. It was at that very same moment that I cruelly blurted out to my wife, "We might as well go home. We can't make it financially here. I guess all my doubts were right. This was a dumb thing to do." Her answer? Although I don't remember the exact words, it went something like this, "Trey Rhodes. Did God call us here? If He didn't we should never have come in the first place. If He did, then He will provide." A little humbled I answered, "But honey, there is nothing...we have nothing to pay with. And I'm not just saying that..." I then walked out the door to get some fresh air to try and clear my mind. As I walked, I muttered half to myself and half knowing God could hear me, "Why did we come here anyway? No job...no money...nothing. I guess I just brought my wife and kids up here for...nothing." As I passed the mailbox, which was about 1000 feet from our seminary duplex, I thought I'd see what other bills had come in. I opened the box...still muttering...and spied a letter with a return address from back home. Once again, I complained, "They're probably telling me all the reasons I shouldn't have come up here." Reluctantly, I opened the envelope and discovered not only a letter, but a blue checked piece of paper that looked like some kind of check. Surely, I was seeing things. I bent over and picked it up, brought it close enough to read, and saw an amount that was exactly what we needed to stay the course...at least for now. Within the next week, a ministry position opened up at a local church. Soon I received my first paycheck, and 2 and a half years later, finished seminary. Tested, persevered, and with God's help passed the test.

Here's what I'm saying, many of you committed to the Lord to get your finances in order so that you could be those generous people God is calling us all to be. For that to happen, we must be faithful to God's call in our lives to obey Him...no matter the struggle we face. Never quit and never give up. God wants to do great things through you. Choose to be that funnel of God's blessing and impact this world like you have never imagined!

Never gonna' give up,

Pastor Trey Rhodes

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