Many people have plans of losing weight or going to grad school or writing a book or opening a business or starting a ministry or getting out of debt and so on. However, many aren’t fully committed and so their dreams die out. How many times in life have we decided to pursue a goal but when things get too difficult, we fall back into our old routine doing what we did before.
The bible tells the story of a man who wanted to follow in the footsteps of another person who was highly successful in his ministry. In pursuit of this goal, the man decided to make a clean start and got rid of everything he owned. His plan? If his new venture was too difficult, too bad. He had to stay with it because he had nothing to go back to!
I am an ex-smoker. I began smoking in the military. After my service, I continued to smoke. One day I decided to “quit cold turkey” and I threw away all the cigarettes in my possession. My resolve to quit smoking was short lived because I continued to hang out with others who smoked. They did what I wanted to do. Smoke! And so, I started back.
In the back of my mind, I knew I had to quit. I decided that if I was going to beat my nicotine addiction, I could no longer spend time with my smoking buddies. I had to make a clean start with my life.
I discovered that the first step is always the hardest. You can’t just take a step forward into the future, you also have to eliminate the possibility of moving backward into the past. That’s how you break addictions. That’s how you reconcile relationships. To begin a new chapter, you must end an old chapter.
Failure is resorting back to your old way when your new way gets too risky, too costly or too difficult. That’s why most people continue to live their old way. They haven’t gotten rid of what kept them from making a clean start. So, if you want to move forward in life, leave the things that keep you from success. Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Chaplain Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
