It’s not okay to give up
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith".
Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV.
Howdy Connor!
Last week you were talking about the long dusty road of faith. About how Jesus is sitting there by the campfire waiting. It made me think of a different long dusty road that we found ourselves on once. I am not sure if you will remember this or not. So let me set the stage a little bit for you. It is Freshman year of college. You were taking an English class and not doing too hot. My new job wasn’t working out the way I had wanted it to. Things were really freaking rocky with our friend group. I was taking 18 credits and was miserable. You were miserable in your classes, and we were sitting outside of the dining hall, when an idea was pitched.
“What if we just left?”
I think the plan was to move to Moab Utah at the time. To abandon everything behind and just leave it for (Moab) Utah. Leave college behind, abandon it all, and give up. It seemed like such a clean solution at the time. Just drop out of college and let it be how it was. Live the simple life and while leaving this complicated mess behind. It was like such a good idea at the time.
Looking back on it now.
I think that would have been one of the worst mistakes of our entire lives. I truly don’t think we could have messed up more badly than if we had just left that day. We tried to give up. I’ve thought a lot about what would have been lost if we had actually decided to give up that day. I don’t know about you? But I would have missed out on nearly everything that I consider the most important to me right now.
College is incredibly hard to deal with. Emotions are always seeming to run high. It is one of the very few times that you are surrounded by people in mostly the same stage of life as you. It can so often feel like your entire world is crumbling down around you in just a few moments. That it would be easier to just give up. But its not okay to just give up. The right thing to do is just keep going. Because I can almost guarantee that whatever is on the other side of the hill is so much better.
Do not judge the mountains by their valleys, or maybe a better analogy would be judging the desert while in the shadow of its dunes. College is, I think, in every sense of the word a race. Races are hard, and I think it important as Christians to remember that skills, talents, and experience that you gain in college are not for your benefit alone. They are meant to be benefits for your faith and the communities that you will one day live in. All of that goes away, all of the people that should have one day counted on you go away when you give up. So keep going!
Your Friend, Shay Krueger