If you quit
Guest Column
This column is about something I’ve thought about doing before and that’s just saying the heck with it. Some of you might say it a bit differently.
When I was a pastor I would get so sick and tired of the same old people whining and complaining about the same old stuff that never amounted to anything. Yet, they seemed to relish in having something to complain about. Most of us have been there and done that. We have whined or just got tired of hearing others whine.
Chances are you are there right now. You’ve done all you can to help somebody and you can’t do it anymore. You’ve hung onto something that you wished you had walked out of a long time ago. You’ve showed up at a job that you’ve hated for years. You’ve carried on in different tasks that you are tired of doing because it all seems so futile. Nobody would probably blame you much if you made a change. For good or bad the person you always have to deal with is you. You have to decide if you can live with your decision to give up.
Fifteen years ago I didn’t know how I was going to eat let alone pay the mortgage. I was trying to start a practical way for ministers around the planet to study the Bible and earn a ministry degree at home. After two years it was pretty dead and going zero. I was so jobless that I was interviewing with a nursing home for a job that paid really nothing. The interviewer wanted to know what my current job was and I said, “President of Newburgh Theological Seminary, Newburgh, Indiana.” She said, “That sounds like a better job.” I replied “I would like it more if it at least paid a little something.” I was ready to quit but one tiny small success eventually led to another and that was fifteen years and at least 6000 students ago. I’m glad I didn’t quit but nobody would have blamed me if I had.
I’m certainly by no means saying life is roses. Not everything turns out pie and cream in life. I’ve had plenty of failures. I have failures going on right now. I suppose the only way I can escape failing at stuff is to stop trying to do anything. I’ve thought about giving up this column. About the time I start having this thought I’ll get email from different people telling me that something I wrote was meaningful to them. An editor will write me and thank me or somebody will hate something I wrote and write something ugly. At least then I know I’m being read. So, I’m going to stay with it for awhile. Who knows what will happen.
Today, maybe the whole point of all of this is to help you stay with it a little longer or maybe just one more day. When you look back you never feel that great about anything if you just quit.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is the author of 12 books. His syndicated column is read in all 50 states.
