Each week, my Pastor, Carl Toti, sends out a weekly email. I felt this one was appropriate for my blog today:
Quitting Wrinkles the Soul
The trees in Florida are hurricane proof not because they have deep roots rather they endure because they bend in the storm. God has made us so that we bend but don’t break. Sometimes we can find our life in a category five dilemma. We are tempted to give up, quit or throw in the towel. During such times remember the words of one of our greatest military generals of all time.
General Douglas MacArthur said, “Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” He elaborated further, “You don’t get old from living a particular number of years; you get old because you have deserted your ideals. Years wrinkle your skin; renouncing your ideals wrinkles your soul. Worry, doubt, fear, and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.”
Don’t quit on your ideals. Never give up on your dreams. If an old dream has died then it’s because the Lord has a new one for you to dream. Stop negotiating with your fears and doubts – their solution is always the same – “just quit.” But quitting isn’t an option for the servant of the Lord. In Isaiah 42 the prophet gives a Messianic prophecy about Jesus. He calls Him the Servant of the Lord. Isaiah describes this remarkable servant who is adorned with many beautiful virtues that we can emulate in our own life.
He won’t quit or give up
until he brings justice everywhere on earth,
and people in foreign nations long for his teaching.
Isaiah 42:4 (CEV)
Bend but don’t break!
Carl Toti
Senior Pastor
Trinity Church
