You Just Can't Quit

Have you ever seen a football team give up and walk off the field before the game was over? Maybe they are losing 40 to o at the end of the half, with no hope of ever catching up. But they come out again and play while the score piles up against them. Quit before the game is over? Never!

Why do they keep on playing? What gives them the courage and strength to keep on going after they know they have lost? Well, for one thing they have their pride and don't want to be known as quitters. They have a game to be played and they play it.

They are not playing the game just for themselves. They represent their school and their town. There are friends, parents, rooters, cheerleaders, and the band in that game, too. There are too many people involved in the game to quit—whether winning or losing.

Football games and athletic contests are not the only places where the going seems hopeless at times. Our Christian church in its earliest days fought what looked like a losing battle. A small unorganized group of unarmed peace lovers were threatened by the Roman Empire which ruled the known world in those days. They were burned at the stake, fed to lions, murdered for the amusement of the Romans, but they kept right on believing they had a right to exist. Paul told the church in Corinth that they might not be the wisest or strongest men in Greece, but, he reminded them, God had chosen them to do his work and was with them all the way. John Bunyan wrote:

He that is down fairs no fall;
He that is low, no pride,
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.