I appreciate his MRI’s and X-rays, his physical therapists and chiropractors. But enough is enough when he's not alleviating any pain. Right?
I question myself over and over before I give up something... Is it too soon? What if I’ll need it later? Can I ever get it back? Will I be considered a quitter?
Is “giving up” the same as “quitting”?
Is it being a quitter when we lay aside practices that no longer work, or schedules that no longer serve a purpose, or even fun activities that have long since lost their joy?
Didn’t Jesus give things up? Did that make him a quitter?
Jesus certainly gave up pieces of his glory when he squeezed his deity into a cramped, tiny mold of a human body. He gave up heaven to live on earth. He even gave up a spotless relationship with his Father when he bloodied his character with our sins. He gave up the innocence of his very life.
But he didn’t quit on the plan—he worked it flawlessly. He didn’t quit loving us—we stayed on his mind constantly. He didn’t quit obeying God—he glorified him in everything he did. If he had given up on those things, he would have been a quitter.
And he wouldn’t have gained resurrection, or regained his original glory.
So “giving up” does not equal “quitting”. Some things we need to give up. If it no longer bears fruit, let it go. Let God free our hands of useless things to be refilled with better things.
What will I gain by giving up my doctor?
Certainly more time and more money, less stress and less prodding. I’ll gain release from a pursuit that’s proven fruitless. And I’ll gain freedom to invest energy instead into accepting that all is well, now, in pleasure and in pain. True gifts indeed—only to be received by open and empty hands.
Such gifts do not arrive from a passive pattern of quitting, but from an active and voluntary giving up....
I give up.
~ Philippians 2
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
