DON’T GIVE UP YET

Few hours ago I got to the point of voicing the very words “I feel like giving up”. That was in reply to a question poised early by someone I dearly care about.

She had looked me in the eye, after telling me about an issue that concerned me greatly and asked “What do you feel right now?”

“Do you really want to know?” I retorted

“Yes, I do”, She affirmed.

“You want to know how I really feel.” I questioned again.

When I knew she was in on knowing. I weakly told her how much I wanted to give up and to give up on everything. What I said to her wasn’t a result of the pressure I experienced today or the situations that seem not to fit into orchestrated plans. No. what I felt was the product of piled up pressure, unachieved dreams, untold expectations and the desire to be better which seemed thwarted by so many causes and cares.

So many things had made a nice burger pile on me and I felt the need to just cave in and lie flat. Funny enough she didn’t seem to feel the same way. She adviced I hold on and reminded me of the display picture I had on one of my social messengers. I smirked and discarded the display picture as any form of encouragement. I even went ahead to tell her I wasn’t a frog (see picture). I was that low in strength.

Minutes later, when she had gone I chanced to meet a pal I hadn’t seen in months and we did a laid-back catching up. He asked questions that seem to provoke the same response I gave to my friend but this time around I had summoned up strength to answer the same throbbing question without the same deadness in my spirit. I told him what the situation was and how I was working on it and all the situations I needed to consider before making a final decision and he concurred and encouraged me to keep at it. He said many people see differently including him but with my explanation, he sees reason enough to believe and hope that all would be well.

He went ahead to ask about my business and work and that opened another episode of discussion. We stayed on for a while and when we were done talking he looked at me and told me that he hadn’t expected to find such wisdom in this town. He said he had listened to elderly men and closed his mind to them because they didn’t have much to say but this little moment was a refresher for him and he is motivated to do more in this little town. He said he had issues concerning the environment same as I had mentioned in my discussion but that if I was doing what I was doing despite the odds, then he would reactivate his energy and get busy. He said I had encouraged him without intending to and that listening to me he has learnt far more than the subject matter.

Then I recalled how I had earlier in the evening rounded up a seminar that majored on distinguishing between portable computers. Immediately after the question and answer segment, one of the attendees shot me a question. “Do you know that sometimes one thinks he knows but really doesn’t know?” I smiled as I waited for him to hit his target. He went ahead to tell me that something I had said today had been misconstrued by him for many years but I just cleared it and it makes a whole lot of sense to him. In my little mind, I just wondered how he didn’t know that little thing that seems so easy and of public knowledge. But as I recalled that event it dawned on me that no matter how down we feel, if we truly look around we would notice many more down below.

Life is designed in such a manner to enable us to look up to the ones above us and to understand that there are others that are below looking up to us. If we know how many people are counting on us, we wouldn’t just wake up with a give-up thought.

Granted, sometimes things are so bad and unimaginably hard but someone yet knows that we are better than he or she is and would always look up to us. We should be encouraged that people look up to us and encourage ourselves by looking up to others. We must however know that people fail and sometimes it gets so hard that we may not find one to encourage us. God always knows what is amiss and He cares more than any other. We ought to seek him time and again.

I got home and picked up my phone to browse through my chat messages and I saw very comforting verses from the same bible I read. It was all connected. Today was God’s channel of telling me that even rich men cry, fruitful trees get stoned and no one is without situations that can become overwhelming. He made me see that trusting Him was a solution to every problem.

I let my heart wonder in worry. I threw caution to the wind and faced the world in a fearful stance but thank God I lived through today to tell the tale.

I am no superman. I find issues I have to contend with but just like David did, I would learn to encourage myself in the Lord and you should learn that too.

Situations may have determined to swallow us whole and end our existence. They may have planned our untimely exit. It could be that all our efforts are geared to be wasted but the counsel here is DON’T GIVE UP.

What you cannot achieve by continuing, you can never achieve by giving up or quitting. Let’s press on with the challenge, the workload, the business, the studies, the assignment, whatever it is that we ought to do. Lets press on for in due season, we would reap the rewards and tell the tale.

The world is a stage and actors come and go but the message passed across would outlive lifetimes. Let’s be mindful of the generation that would depend on our counsel, the posterity that would listen for our voice and the unborn children that would single handedly pick us to be their mentors even when we are passed to the great beyond. If we remember that the impact we make is determined by the effort we invest then we wouldn’t be in a hurry to just give up.

If you give up now many would give up too, even without attempting or starting out. Let’s hold the fort and stand as a lighthouse to others. They may be asleep now but once they awake, they would see our light shinning forth on the path we have trod and they would follow suit and bless our efforts.

No matter the pressure, no matter the situation, no matter the hurt, no matter the time…DO NOT GIVE UP!

1Pe 5:7 Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. (AMP)

Php 4:6 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. (MSG)