It’s always too soon to quit

“Winners never quit. Quitters never win.” I can still see that sign hanging in our locker room. It had been mounted by my high school coach to build character and instill courage within us. The message came through loud and clear. This was not rocket science. It would become the bedrock foundation of our every drill, our every practice, our every game.

Take, for example, a gifted athlete who is blessed with every advantage: size, height, speed, muscles, strength. He is the total package. Inevitably, he is competing against a less gifted athlete, who is smaller, slower, shorter, less muscular. So often, the less gifted athlete beats the swifter and more muscular one. Even Solomon recognized “that the race is not to the swift” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

The Bible says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). The key is endurance. Perseverance. Staying power. Show me what it takes to stop you, and I will show you whether you are a champion or not. I am amazed at what little things eventually stop us in God’s race. Petty things. Peripheral things. Hurt feelings. Misunderstandings. Trivial pursuits.

If you are undergoing a personal trial or test you must endure and press on because a crown awaits you. James put it this way, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under a trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life” (James 1:12). The one who endures and perseveres through trials will receive a crown.

The Christian life is a long distance marathon, not a 100-yard sprint. Endurance is more endurance than sprinter’s speed. The last 100 yards of the race are more important than the first 100 yards.

The Bible says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). Endurance (the Greek word hupomone) means a steady determination to keep going. The word combines the verb “to bear up” with the prefix “under.” It literally means “to bear up under” as bearing up under a heavy load. It means to bear up patiently under the constant stress and demand of a marathon.

We’re talking about perseverance, steadfastness and persistence. You must keep running even when you want to stop. The Christian life is protracted obedience in the same direction. It requires hanging tough through the daily grind. It will push us to the very limit of what we can endure. Remember, this is a marathon — 26-plus grueling miles — not a short sprint.

In order to run with endurance, we must have a realistic idea of what it involves. We have looked at the definition. Now, let’s consider a description of endurance. There are four basic components.

• If I am to run with endurance, I must have a long-term commitment to Jesus Christ. I must see my commitment as lifelong, not a 90-day option.

The Christian life begins with a long-term commitment to Jesus Christ (salvation). Wherever he leads, I will go. Whatever he requires, I will give. That is the front-end commitment. Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

• We must recognize that running a marathon involves pain and agony. This is not a Sunday stroll in the park. It involves discomfort and suffering. Without pain there is no gain. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). His race involved a cross and so will ours. “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me’” (John 16:24).

The Greek word for race (agon) is the very word from which we get the English word agony. Literally, Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with endurance the agony that is set before us.” We will experience the pain of self-denial and cross bearing and persecution and rejection and misunderstanding and Satanic attack and thorns in the flesh. Paul shared his spiritual diary in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.”

• Running with endurance requires my aggressive effort. I must give an all out effort. When the Bible says, “Let us run with endurance” (Hebrews 12:2), it is calling us to action. I must assume the responsibility to endure. God gives the power to run. He is at work within (Philippians 2:3) but you must pick up one aching foot and put it before the other.

Paul writes, “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus… One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

• I must finish strong if I am to run with endurance. It is not enough to start strong. I must finish strong. In the 1986 New York City Marathon almost 20,000 runners entered this famous race. What is memorable is not who finished first, but who finished last. His name is Bob Wieland. He finished 19,413th. Dead last. Bob completed the New York City Marathon in — are you read for this? — four days, two hours, 48 minutes, 17 seconds. Unquestionably it was the slowest marathon in history.

What makes Wieland’s story so special? Bob ran with his arms. Bob’s legs were blown off in Vietnam 17 years earlier. Why bother to finish? Because there is a victory to be experienced in simply finishing the course. Jesus said, “Many who are first will be last; and the last, first” (Matthew 19:30, 20:16). It will take another world to determine who the real winners are down here on earth.

Jesus finished well. His marathon began in Bethlehem and he endured all the way to the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, he cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Redemption was accomplished. He died as a substitute in our place. The father’s wrath was poured out upon Jesus. His blood paid for our sins. Jesus didn’t quit. He finished the race. You must do the same.

Ethan Hansen is pastor of Faith Bible Fellowship in Big Lake. He can be reached at ehansen@biglakefaithbible.net.