Never Give Up!

I know a man who was born to fail, never succeed, destined to quit everything he attempted! His father told him always he would never amount to anything. He was stupid and he should just quit! So he did, he lived down to those expectations and never finished anything he started. Sports, school,  friendships, even the Military kicked him out!

The only thing he did well was quit! It became so easy as life went on to just quit, give up blame everyone else for his failings! He quit so much even his father who taught him so well became disappointed in him! A mother who loved him even came to the point of acceptance that her son would probably not live long, most quitters do not, and that is so sad!

It became so easy to give up that it was the one successful thing he could do, and do well! He had no friends, except three he could think of yet ran them off for years! Again he was successful, again it was easy to quit even close friendships! Quitting became the norm of success for this man, he was taught well and encouraged by family, though that was not really so!

He acted so badly most times his family came to expect nothing less or more from him! His family loved him, but there was nothing they could do. They just watched as he spiraled into drugs and alcohol, bitterness seized him, anger surrounded him like a cloud! He could not be reasoned with at all. Confusion would set in as he did all to please his father, lived down to his expectations, did exactly what his father taught him.

Only to see disappointment and more discouraging looks and comments from his dad! That confused and certainly angered him more. If he was doing all his father had expected of him than why was his father not proud? He would later find it was all in reflection, he was the reflection of his father, a mirror image that reminded him of his failures!

Though he raised his son to fail, it reminded him of his failings, something he never wanted to deal with either! Watching his son fall apart and nothing he could do made him helpless, so it gave him more reason to quit also! His son knowing this and feeling the pain, wanting so much for his dad to just love him and be proud on anything, failed even more!

Nothing he did mattered, not anything he could do well would make a difference, people just knew it would not last! He would quit, because the one person he sought to please, the one he sought to prove things too, could never come to the place or find the words, son I am proud of you! You see, his father was a quitter also, for him to expect any good thing from his son he would have to see some good in himself and it was just not there!

His son did not know these things because his father could not share these things. So this man continued down a road that was destined to kill him if he did not change something! Thoughts reeled in his head how he could do things people would remember him by! The sad thing, these were all thoughts of how he could die in a big and exciting way people would remember him for!

Little did he understand, people would only remember the sad life this man lived, he would be leaving them nothing else! But who would know that this man had a plan for his life? A plan that would change peoples thinking of him. Even he would be amazed, though hopeless now, he would come to see how valuable he would become!

Though he was rejected, as he felt all his life, it would be through rejection that his life would be transformed! Being asked to leave a place he loved so much because his actions were so bad. He felt he had failed again, letting down a man who loved him so much! But being a quitter by profession it was easy to leave, but this time he left with something no one else gave him.

It was something that would take another ten years to grab him. But it would change his life forever and make him a winner he never thought was possible! Through what he thought was rejection, being asked to leave, was actually an invitation to be accepted. An acceptance that would make this man hunger and desire to go back to the father, who had done so terribly raising him and seek his forgiveness!

It would be an acceptance that would give this man a purpose in life, a reason to live, a reason to never give up and quit again, at least not without a fight or a right reason! As I said though, it would take another ten years from that day he was asked to leave! Another ten years of failure, quitting and rejection of many! A time when he would even move away from his home town to escape his life.

Little did he or would he understand until later. No matter where he would go, he was always and be would be always there, there is no escaping you! Yet being away did not change the fact he still wanted to impress his father, do that one thing that would get his attention and show him how wrong he was! Remember the man who asked him to leave his property?

I hope you do, I hope you are asking, just what did he give this man when asking him to leave? He gave him hope, he gave him purpose, he gave him love, he gave him what he had been given years before when his own life had none of these! He introduced him to a man who had also experienced rejection from his own people.

A man who was sent by his own father to these people, a father who would have to turn his back on his own son for doing what he sent him to do! A man who would love him and bring him out of despair. Teach him to love those who had rejected him and forgive those turned their backs on him! Deliver him from the anger he had for his own father and to fall in love with him!

Desiring to share this mans life with his father because his father deserved better! Sharing this man with his wife and children because he failed them miserably and they deserved better! He shared this man with others because it was through this man he was able to hope again! Never wanting to quit, never wanting to give up he had hope.

He found he had a future! Today is no different for many, there are many like this man, who have felt the pain of rejection and loneliness. The put down of fathers and mothers! A life of quitting and failure never seeing a life worth living for! But there is a man who wants to make a change in your life, a man who gave it all so you can have it all! A man who loves us like he loved the man in the story above! Before having been asked to leave, an invitation was given.

An invitation and introduction to the man who could change his life! It was a life changing introduction to a man named Jesus Christ!  The man in the story was told if he would ask Jesus into his life he would be transformed! One day in a little room next to a bed this man fell down broken beyond broken! Cried out to this Jesus he was introduced to, claimed the promise of a new life!

That day would never be forgotten, for when he stood up he was changed! Nothing he could do himself, he tried everything, but the best he could do was just quit and give up! This day in 1979 was different, it was a day he emerged from his room different, changed from the inside out he was changed! He wanted to share this change with his father.

How do you know he was changed you ask? He never quit, he never gave up til he got to his father many miles a way, and many months after his change! Quitting was not an option anymore! Something miraculous had happened he felt like a winner for the first time in his entire life! He no longer wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, he just wanted to share his new life with others!

People saw the change yet watched for a time, they knew him, they knew it was just a matter of time and he would quit and let them down again. But this time was different  as years passed he remained the same, not perfect but changed! What happened to his relationship with his father? Well he first shared his faith in Jesus, asked him for his forgiveness!

His forgiveness, really? Yes, he need to move on with his life, so whether his father accepted it or not this man could move on and not look back! His life would be free from his fathers baggage, he could begin with a clean slate! But the one thing he did not receive that day he so desperately wanted, just one thing! To hear his father say four words, I love you son! It did not happen that day, But he man never quit, never gave up!

With every phone call, before they hung up, the man would say I love you dad! Dad's response would always be, me too son! Never quitting, one day after a phone call, the man finished by saying I love you dad. His father for the first and last time said, I love you too son! The man just wept and thanked Jesus for that one special gift he still carries with him in his heart!

Sharing Jesus with his father was the nest step, every time his father's response was he did not need a Savior! On the day of his father's death, four hours before, he got a call from his sister, dad just got saved he knows Jesus! The man wept thanking Jesus for this gift, not knowing in four hours his father wold be gone! He did not give up, he did not quit praying!

This man was a quitter never finished anything gave up on it all, had no hope was a failure destined to a life of no hope nothing! Jesus made a difference, Jesus gave him to hope to hang on and never give up, even on the man he had come to hate! He never gave up! How about you?

Quitter, hater, hopeless, are you like the man in the story? By the way this story is true! Come to Jesus, He never gives up on you, so you never have to quit or give up! You are special, so special to Him that he died for you, yes he gave it all so you could live! John 3:18, Romans 10:9-13, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21