1 Timothy 6:12 (New International Version)
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the
eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the
presence of many witnesses.
Do you know when to give up and when to keep trying?
Former University of Alabama president, Frank Rose, used to tell a favorite
story about a time, in the mid-1960s, when evangelist Billy Graham was invited
to speak at an event in the university's football stadium. There were 18,000
people in attendance that evening. America's civil rights movement was well
underway and the stadium crowd represented one of the largest racially
integrated meetings ever held in the state.
As Rev. Graham was giving a message about easing racial
tensions, a huge thunderstorm gathered overhead. Suddenly, lightening struck
and a ball of fire seemed to emanate from the speaker's microphone and travel
down the wire.
Graham immediately sat down. Then he leaned over and
spoke to Alabama's legendary football coach, Bear Bryant. "Coach," he
said, "you'd have stopped, too, if that lightnin' had hit you like
that."
Bear said, "No sir!"
"What do you mean?" asked Graham.
"Well," he said, "if I was down on the
one-yard line, I wouldn't have stopped until I scored."
At that, Rev. Graham returned to the microphone and
finished his talk.
Safety considerations aside, the story reminds us of one
of life's important lessons. In most of what we do, there is a time to stop,
but there is also a time to score; a time to pack it in, but also a time to
complete the task. The woodpecker owes its success to the fact that it uses its
head and keeps pecking away until it finishes the job!
Today, will you quit? Or will you keep pecking away?
Dear Lord we pray that we would have the resolve to keep
pecking away at the things that are before us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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