"Never, never, never give up" is a famous quote by Winston Churchill. "Don't give up. Don't ever give up" is also a famous quote by someone who is probably more well known in this part of the woods - Jim Valvano. This past weekend, the ghost of Jimmy V could be seen at the ACC Tournament as number 10 seed NC State played their way to the championship game against favorite to win University of North Carolina. They played a great first 17 minutes befoe falling apart. With around 11 minutes left to play, they were down by sixteen points.
I ALMOST turned off the game. Nobody really expected State to win. Everyone acknowledged they had played far beyond expectations. Honestly, their bench really was not deep enough to beat someone like Carolina. But, State had beaten this same team earlier in the season. With 9 minutes left to play, the lead was cut to single digits. By the 5 minute mark, it was a game. The Tarheels were clearly concerned they might not win. The Pack was clearly aware they just might. In the end, UNC was crowned tournament champs. They got to cut down the nets. But NC State came away as the winners to many because of the great effort.
"Never give up" is found throughout the Bible. We're told to never stop doing good. We are given assurance that our faith journeys are being continually refined by God. When trouble comes and tries to derail us, we are given encouragement that God will help us through. We are told of the good things that come when we never give up.
Faith journeys are all about never giving up. If we gave up, they would be "faith trips". If we look back on our faith journeys, we will discover times where we did things we never thought possible. There will be moments when we realized our responses even surpassed what others thought we were capable of. At times, we may feel like the 2007 Wolfpack. We don't necessarily win the championship, but we get a lot of credit for our effort. Our championship will come one day however, as long as we never give up.
When is the right time?
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This past week I had coffee with the pastor of the church we're now
attending. I talked for about an hour straight, telling my story. All the
while he prov...
15 years ago
3 comments:
Thanks for the Help! These are great! Have you written any books?
I would love to read them if you have! You have such a way with the written word.
Thank you for the undeserved praise. I hope to one day publish some sci-fi or other fiction, but alas, I remain in the category of "aspiring writer."
That is great!! Perhaps you could post some these pages sometime, so I could read them!? Perhaps you might email me a few pages so I read them!? You must write for the local paper! I look forward to more of your writings!
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