Have you ever wanted to call it quits? We all have. Every single one of us has, especially when the press of people’s opinions suffocate us. Or when the demands of others’ expectations coupled with our own sense of inadequacy and failure squelch our spirit. When it comes spiraling down to an ever-increasing, tightening spiral, we want to call it quits.
There are times when your line gets so tangled that you need to cut your losses for the sake of survival. However, that’s a subject for another time. Today I want to talk about the majority of time when that is not an option. When you really need to hang on but you just can’t seem to do it and you feel caught between two bad options. One, to continue as is. Two, to quit. And they’re both bad options. What will you do when you’re caught between the two?
I have a friend named Gary who felt that way. When I was in ministry with him he was telling me about a time he was running a quarter-mile relay. That’s a very fast relay. Basically, it’s once around the track and there are guys on each of the quarters waiting for the baton. It was a big competition in a small town and he was running anchor. And the whole thing takes place in less than a minute. Once around, you pass the baton, doing this three times, and off that one goes to the finish.
People were packed in the grandstands that day. It was spring so it was a little chilly and the runners had sweats on. Now Gary, being anchor, was the last guy to be in the box. When the gun went off, his role was to remove his team’s starting block from the track and then get to his box and wait for the baton to hit his hand, all within about forty-five seconds.
And so the gun went off – Bang! – and he ran to remove the blocks. Usually he has plenty of time to get to his box but the foot pegs fell off so he only had time to grab them up and run back toward the starting box. But he suddenly remembered that he still had his sweats on. He saw his teammate flying around the corner, so he whipped off his sweat pants as fast as he could and ran to the box. Bam! He had made it just in time to feel the slap of the baton hit his hand and start sprinting to the finish. Yet as he was racing, he noticed people yelling more loudly than they should. He also noticed that it was colder than it should have been. And as he looked down he had a final realization: he had taken off a lot more than just his sweats.
In that moment, Gary said, he was caught between two bad options. One option was to continue and the other was to quit. In that split second, amidst all of the aghast onlookers, Gary faced the option to either hightail it towards the locker rooms by taking a sharp left turn across the field or to zip to the finish. He chose to zip across the field to the safe harbor of the lockers. I rolled with laughter when he told me that.
Have you ever felt that way—where you’re caught between two bad options?
Another friend of mine has. His name was Peter. Someone I’ve come to identify with and appreciate over the years. If you had known him in his youth you would have called him Simon. Simon was promised a very prominent role in a new kind of fishing venture. He used to catch fish from Galilee but, due to a strange twist of events, he met the Master. This Master not only gave him a new name, Simon Peter, he also gave him the most inspiring, earth-shattering, compelling vision he had ever received. In fact all the other visions and invitations that he would receive from then on would pale in comparison to this one.
Peter would no longer be fishing for fish; he would be fishing for men. And it gripped his heart. Oh, how he would love to be a part of that. I can still recall Peter telling the story of when he first met the Master. Allow me to share his story with you…
“I remember the first time I met the Master,” Peter said. We were sitting around a small campfire when Peter picked up a stick and began to stir the fire. As he did, he began to stir up memories along with the embers, causing a flurry of sparks to rise, dancing above the flames, like momentary fireflies. They would dance for a glimmer of a moment … then disappear into the night. He continued to spin his story of how he first met the Master.
“We had been fishing all night. We hadn’t caught a thing. Not even a bite. In fact, it was right out there,” he said pointing to his left. From the shore where we were seated we could see over the Sea of Galilee. “Yes, just about a 10-minute row into the deep… all night long. It was a long night of dark and empty nets. Finally, the morning light awakened the surrounding Galilean hills with splashes of pastels. It was a symphony of light slowly rising accompanied by the chirps and tweets of birds greeting the morning.
“With my hunger begging me homeward to eat, we packed up our nets, but just then the Master said, ‘Have you caught anything?’
‘Nah, nothing.’
Then He said the unexpected, ‘Put out your nets again and there you will find the catch.’
‘Master,’ I said, ‘we’ve been fishing hard all night and we haven’t caught a thing. But at your bidding we will put down our nets.’”
Peter said, “Do you know what I really wanted to say at that point? What I really wanted to say was, ‘Who in the world do you think you are? Hey, listen, we’ve been working like dogs all night and we haven’t caught a thing! And if you notice, it’s morning. Fish won’t bite. I know this sea better than you know your Hebrew alphabet. I know the currents, the storms, the way the fish run. I’ll make a deal with you. I don’t tell you how to preach, you don’t tell me how to fish. Deal?’ But I caught myself and my bad Galilean manners and forced the polite answer. ‘We have worked hard all night Master, but at your bidding we will put the nets down.’
“So we did, and I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. It was a matter of moments when our nets were down and the whole lake began to quiver, began to shake like a plate of Jell-O. And after it stopped, there was that, that tremor and the whole lake became calm. And in the morning light, all of a sudden it was like silver coins being tossed all around us. Everywhere. There were so many fish! So many of them that we started to summon the boats nearby to help us pull them in. We filled the boats to the rim. And we could have kept bringing in fish had we had bigger boats, but we were afraid of sinking so we stopped and went in to shore.
“And just then it hit me. What a fool I was to have wanted to give such a harsh reply to the Master, who was about to perform a miracle. This really is the Lord! With that realization, my inadequacy flooded me. I fell at his feet and cried, ‘Depart from me! For I am a wicked man. I don’t deserve your attention. I don’t deserve your mercy.’
“But then He spoke in such a way that it drove away my insecurities with a word and my heart was re-attuned and I found my way back home. In a moment He spoke and said, ‘Do not fear, Simon Peter, for you have been catching fish, but I will make you a fisher of men. From now on you won’t be serving yourself, you’ll be representing Me. Come, follow Me.’
“That was the first time I met the Master. That’s when we left everything and followed Him. And Jesus called me to simply walk with Him. No, not to build a big business, not to become famous … just to walk with Him.
“But just when it seemed that everything was ready to take off, one of the disciples got bitter and that tainted the whole mix. Because of this betrayal, Jesus was arrested. He was tried for treason and blasphemy, and finally, crucified, putting an end to everything we had pinned our hopes on. Everything just blew up. Not only that, but those who were connected to Jesus were on the ‘Most Wanted in Jerusalem’ list. But the worst part for me came on the night of Jesus’ trial. You know, we had a fire just like this one. It was early dawn and we were sitting around the fire warming ourselves when a slave girl came and recognized me as one who had been following Jesus.
“I pulled the cloak a little closer to my face but that didn’t stop her because she pressed and said, ‘Weren’t you one of those disciples connected to Jesus?’
‘I don’t know who you’re talking about,’ I replied. ‘Just leave me alone.’
My reply aroused her curiosity and she came back, ‘I know you’re one. I saw you with him.’
I repeated, ‘Leave me alone. I don’t know who he is. I’ve never met him. So leave me alone.’
“But I think it was the third time she asked that really got to me. It was this time, the third time, that I swore at her and pounded my fists into the dirt, yelling, ‘I never knew him!’ I was trying to put an end to any further interrogation. And she, recognizing that she was awakening the anger of a Galilean stranger, backed away. But the damage was done.
“Just then, an early morning rooster began to crow, reminding me of the words that Jesus had warned me with only a few days before: ‘You too will face the temptation of wanting to call it quits.’”
Peter went out and wept. Wept for having betrayed the very one who called him to be part of something eternal; who gave him hope and direction in his life. And now, in public, he denied knowing him.
It was such a painful memory in Peter’s heart that he felt that he was no better than the ones who had actually murdered Him. “The only difference,” Peter wept, “was that I did it with my words and my denial.” Peter laid low for days. He then called the rest of the disciples and shared his discouragement. It’s contagious you know – discouragement. And all of them chose to call it quits.
The book of John reports the story of the bailout. Trying to push away the pain of bad memories, they pushed the boat to deep waters. And there, towards evening, when the fish began biting, they began fishing. They fished all night but didn’t catch a thing.
They had returned to fishing; back to the way it was before they met the Master. It was time to quit. But they fished all night, and didn’t catch a thing. Not a bite. The long night passed, a long night of darkness, and the empty-handed, empty nets vigil came to an end. And in the early morning hours after this exhausting all-night ordeal they pulled their nets up and were just about ready to go in. The early morning revealed the fog starting to rise like steam over the water. Its mysterious curves seemed to sashay over the lake with the currents, going back and forth, creating an eerie haze.
Peter continued the tale.
“Just then, without revealing its source, a voice cut through the morning stillness, ‘Children, have you caught anything?’
‘Nah,’ I said haltingly, as I peered through the twirling mist, trying to distinguish who was talking. ‘We haven’t caught a thing.’
‘Put your nets down again and there you’ll find the catch.’
‘Hey, we’re not putting our nets down again! I don’t know who you are but we worked hard all night and we… we haven’t caught a thing …’ My voice trailed off and an uncanny feeling of déjà vu crept in, like the swirling mist. ‘Wait, I’ve heard this before,’ I said. ‘Who’s there?’ He spun around to the other disciples. ‘Who is it?’”
“Simon Peter said to them, ‘I’m going back fishing’…that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.” (John 21:3-5)
When you’re ready to call it quits Jesus shows up. Mark my words: He shows up! Now, your eyes may not recognize Him at first, but He’s there. If you’ll listen, His voice will cut through the fog. But you’ll have to incline your ear because you can ignore His voice; you can even deny His voice. But when you’re lost, He’ll show you the way out… if you’ll follow. When you’re ready to call it quits, Jesus will speak to you. Or, more accurately Jesus will speak to the spirit of defeat you’ve allowed to take residence within you. It won’t listen, so you must.
He’ll speak sternly but kindly, “What have I called you to do in the first place?” Just as he asked Peter that eerie spring morning. When Peter realized that indeed it was Jesus, he jumped out of the boat, swam to the Lord, and, finding the Lord sitting at a fire with some fish, sat and stared. And the Lord called him again, “Peter, what have I called you to do?”
Jesus asked Peter the same question He had asked the first time he stumbled upon Peter and his empty nets. There they sat, on the same sandy shore, after three dynamic years of world-changing ministry, and Jesus asked the question again. He restored Peter to his original call.
When you’re about ready to call it quits you’re going to hear the same thing. The Lord is going to speak to you and ask, “What have I called you to do in the first place? You’ve allowed who you are to get clouded. Return to your original call!”
I. RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL CALL.
Go back to your original call. When Peter was ready to call it quits, Jesus called to him a second time from the lakeside, and reminded him of the first call. All Jesus said was, “Return to your original call.”
Return to that compass. Return to the basics—your first love and your original call. What was that for Peter? Read with me from God’s own Word: “Do not fear, from now on, you will be catching men. And when they brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him” (Luke 5:10).
What was that call for you when you first came to Christ? Or maybe when Christ first came to you and spoke with you. What was that original call? I’ll bet He didn’t say, “Go build a big business or become famous.” I’ll bet He said, “Come, follow Me. Come, walk with Me and find yourself in Me.”
Jesus always calls you back to your original call. Why? Because, like the accumulation of barnacles on a ship, outside concerns can build up in our lives. When that happens it’s not really “just me and Jesus.” It’s “me and Jesus plus this and that and this and then I’ll be happy.” Then your identity gets stuck with these barnacles and they’ll take you down.
Slowly but surely, everything gets cut off. Everything will get taken away. To bring you back to the drawing board, to bring you back to what is eternal—who you are as a man or woman of God—is your answer to this question: Is Jesus enough for you? No, not Jesus plus a big business, or Jesus plus a good reputation, or Jesus plus being in control. Just you and Jesus. Is that enough? You see, if we can come back to that then He can add the other things, but our identity won’t latch on to those and they can’t latch on to us.
But God often brings us back to our original call, sometimes by cutting everything else out. Why? Because sometimes we don’t realize that Jesus is all that we need until Jesus is all that we have. And if we refuse to realize that, He lovingly cuts everything out in order to correct us back to that assurance.
Too often we settle for the lie that we are what we do. Right? Just think about meeting someone and getting to know them. You usually ask for their name, and then the second question to help you get to know them and their identity is, “So, what do you do?” They respond, telling you what business they’re involved in. “Oh! And is business good?” And we feel that if business is doing well, then we’re well. If business is not doing well, then we’re not doing too well either. Do you see how our identity can get bound up into what we do?
So when everybody likes us, we’re fine. When nobody likes us, we dive. When our family is fine, we’re fine. When our family is not, we dive. When my checkbook is up, I’m up. If not, I’m down. The bottom line is that our identity has become linked to what we do.
Now if the devil can get you to put your eggs all in one basket–this business, relationship, sport or whatever it might be–if he can get you to put all of your eggs in the wrong basket, he’ll do it. Because if he can get you to lean on something you shouldn’t be leaning on for your identity, your well-being and your life, then all the devil has to do is pull the rug out from one area, just one little area of your life and you crash.
And when you’re ready to call it quits, the Lord asks, “What have you got left?”
“All I have left is You, Lord.” (We know this because His Word promises that He will never leave or forsake us.) The Lord may just say, “Is that enough for you?”
When you’re sure it is, then the first thing He does is restore you to your original call, because God gives you grace for what He has called you to do. But when we move outside of that and try to be someone else, there’s no grace out there. The Lord then has to bring us back to where His grace is so that it can sustain us.
And what is grace? Grace is simply that strength, that fortitude, that enduring heart, that divine ability and energy to overcome. The ability to go forward regardless of whatever comes against us. It shields us, sort of like a grace umbrella that deflects the downpour of different circumstances, and we stand high and dry underneath it all. But when I choose to move outside of that, becoming something that God never intended, then there’s no grace out there. And often the Lord has to say, “Come back in here! Here is where the grace is … come back under the covering! This is where your life can take shape and prosper, within My grace. Stay under it!” The old Pentecostals used to say, “Stay under the spout where the glory comes out!” I like that!
• God will always give you grace for what He asked you to do.
God will always provide all the grace you will need for the assignment He has called you to do. Never for what He has not asked of you, but always for what He has asked of you. Now, you can go outside of that grace. However, you will miss it and if you continue to stay outside of it, bitterness will start to come into your life. A certain discouragement will take root: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile…” (Heb. 12:15).
• We move toward discouragement when we drift from what God has designed us for.
When we move outside of God’s grace, we choose to move towards discouragement, bitterness, and depression. When you’re ready to call it quits then that’s a warning light that you’ve been adrift. It’s time to correct back to what God has called you to do: “He who orders his way aright, to him I shall show the salvation of God” (Ps. 50:23).
You ask, well, how do you do that? Real simple:
II. RUN TO THE LORD.
Run towards God, not away—as we have a natural tendency to do when we’ve sold out and find ourselves at the end of a bad decision, facing its terrible consequences. When we find ourselves in a pigsty, like the Prodigal Son. However, don’t do it. Do NOT run away from Him, run as hard as you can to Him!
When I was growing up my brothers would give me trouble and I would punch them and a fight would flare up. And if I ever needed help against my older brothers (I was the youngest), I would run to my mom. She protected me like a mother bear and I took advantage of that. “Mom,” I would say, “Jerome was trying to hit me. Yes, for no good reason too! Get him, Mom!”
At her highest height, my mother stood all of four feet and ten inches. She was a tiny, petite and delicate little Japanese lady. But I’ll tell you what, when someone was messing with her youngest kid she would turn into this seventeen-foot Goliath giant. And she would give her fiercest Japanese evil eye, “You leave him alone!”
If you riled the wrath of my mom, I mean, even steroid-fed pitbulls would quake in her presence. If my mom had been in the Army in 1941, Pearl Harbor could have been avoided. Those crazy kamikazes would buzz by and she would have warded them off with her evil eye. “You guys leave us alone!”
In the same way that I ran to my mom for protection, you have got to run to the Lord. “What do I do when I run to him?” you might ask. And the answer is real easy:
1. Cry Out to God.
The most spiritual word I have ever said is this: “Help!” That was my cry to Jesus, “Help me, Lord!” I threw my hands up to quit and finally asked God for help.
When you’re ready to call it quits you will not know what to do, so don’t try to figure it out. You’re in no position to think of clear solutions and map out necessary, detailed instructions. You may not be in the position to necessarily hear but you are in a position to heal. But first you must do one thing: Cry out to God. Just cry out! Let it all go, give it over to God.
Sometimes we try to come to that point and blame someone or something else, blame this person or that problem. “I’m going to jump because of him or because of my finances or because of my family …” The Lord says, “Will you quit fiddling with all of that stuff. Stop trying to figure it all out; just cry out! Cry out to me and say, ‘God, I need your help. I don’t know what to do.’ Cry out and I’ll come running to protect you and cover you with My grace.”
Here’s the best way to get God’s attention: Come to God stupid. That’s right. Just come to Him stupid. Lord, I don’t know how to be a husband. I don’t know how to be a wife. I don’t know how to be a dad. I don’t know how to pastor this church. I just don’t know! In fact, I don’t know how to wear my hair or how to dress. I don’t know a thing! Come to God stupid!
Then God will say, “Good, because you really don’t. This is the most honest you’ve been in a long time, Wayne.”
Why do we do this? Because even God cannot fill something that is already full. God cannot fill a vessel with Himself if that vessel is already filled with itself. That’s why, the Bible tells us through the beatitudes that “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” This tells us that when you’re poor, you have a lot of room in your house. You don’t own a thing. And those that are poor in spirit are open to having their spirits all cleared up from any blame, complaints, or faultfinding. The Lord says, “Just come to me foolish. I’ll take care of the rest.”
You might think that this is a vulnerable and weak position to take. That’s fine. The Bible says, “the name of the Lord is like a strong tower that the righteous run into and are saved” (Pr. 18:10). It’s okay to be a weak saint when you’re in the arms of a strong king. Then the Lord can bring healing to you.
So, when you’re ready to call it quits, cry out to God. Always remember that the “thief comes to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). He’s trying to get to you! He’s going to try to tell you that your situation is hopeless and it’s something that cannot be healed or resolved. And so you must take this next step after crying out to the Lord. You must …
2. Resist the devil.
There’s only one thing you ever need to say to the devil: “Get out of here! Don’t talk to me!” You’ll know when he’s trying to speak into your life because everything he says is negative and hopeless. Whenever you hear that just say, “Shut up! Get out of here in Jesus’ name.”
Remember, both Judas and Peter betrayed the Lord. But Judas’ story ended and Peter’s continued. How did that happen? What was the difference? Judas made one terrible choice: he allowed the enemy, the devil, to deal with his sin … and it cost him his life. Peter, on the other hand, let Jesus deal with his sin and it changed his life.
Who are you going to choose to deal with your sin? The Lord? Or the devil? My encouragement is to run from the enemy and towards God. Run to Him!
Remember what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned? Scripture tells us that they ran and hid themselves from the only one in the universe that could help them and heal them. Run to the Lord! Cry out and resist the devil. Flee from him and tell him to “Shut up!” because he will try to take you to a ledge and then push you off, if you’ll let him.
Listen, he doesn’t have the authority to push you over or to take your life. You choose to do that on your own. So even if you’re on the ledge, resist him and run back to the Lord.
I’ll tell you a story that illustrates it. It’s about two guys at the top of the Empire State Building. There’s a little restaurant there and, in the bar, one guy says to the other, “Come to the ledge and look out. Come on!”
They open the doors and whoosh, the wind blows by at high velocity, due to the elevation. So the first guy says, “Hey, the wind up here is so strong that you can jump off this building and bounce right back. No, really, it does! In fact, it’s right by the tenth floor that the wind picks up and whips you around the building and, swoosh, drops you right up here on the viewing deck.”
The second guy says, “No way!”
The first guy says, “Watch!” and he jumps off. Swoosh! He drops like a rock until about ten floors down. Then, whoosh! The wind blows him right back to the deck where his friend is standing in utter amazement.
“Wow!” yelps his friend. “That’s phenomenal! But… no way! That has to be a fluke!”
“No, really,” his friend insists, “it’s true! Watch me do it again.” And he leaps from the top of the Empire State Building. Sure enough, just as he’s passing the tenth floor, swoosh, he comes right back around the building and lands squarely next to his shocked counterpart on the viewing deck.
So he says, “Come on! Your turn, just try it!”
“No way,” says his still doubtful friend.
“You saw it work two times, now really, it’s your turn!”
“Okay, here it goes,” and he jumps. He passes the tenth floor, the ninth, the eighth and keeps descending rapidly towards the street. He hits the ground. Splat!
The first guy returns to the bar and smiles. He takes out a notebook and makes a little mark. And the bartender says, “You know, you have to stop showing off, Superman!”
See what I mean? You can get pushed to the 1edge, but only you choose to jump over.
But, seriously, when you come to that point, please hear God instructing you to go back, and simply go back. Always be sure to correct to Jesus and Jesus alone. Because when everything else is taken away, Jesus is going to ask you, “Am I enough?” Just say, “Yes.” Then He can say, “Go put down your nets. Put down your nets again and go feed My sheep.” That’s what happened to Peter. The Lord saw that he had gone astray, corrected him and restored his call. Jesus said, “Now move forward in faith.”
III. MOVE FORWARD IN FAITH.
“Master, we worked hard all night, but at your bidding we will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5)
Take special notice of the words “at your bidding.” These words prove that Peter didn’t want to do it. He didn’t feel like doing it because he didn’t have any energy left to do it. However, that key phrase made all the difference for Peter to move forward in faith: “at your bidding.” In other words, “at your bidding,” Lord, I will do it. If You ask me to, I will. If You say so, consider it done. At your bidding, despite any circumstance, I will move forward in faith.
There are going to be times when you don’t feel like doing something but because God asks you to, you do. Like returning to your family after they have rejected you. Or going back to church after a hiatus. At these times when everything in you says, “No way,” yet the Lord directs you and says, “Move forward in faith.” Your response gets to be, “Lord, at Your bidding, I will go.”
“But I came up empty last time,” we protest.
Faithfully, He reassures us, “Just put your net down again and you’ll find the catch.”
Sometimes we need to revisit things that came up empty the first time. Like a marriage that came up empty the first time. But the Lord turns you back and says, “Yes, it came up empty but, if you’ll do this at My bidding and not because you’re expecting results from your spouse, then you’ll find the catch.” And when you revisit it with this motivation, you’ll indeed find a catch.
Peter must have caught that as he stirred the embers that second time around the fire. “It was at a fire just like this where I found Jesus sitting,” he shared, embarrassed. “I hung my head. At first there was only silence, but then Jesus spoke. And it pierced my soul. It brought me home. With a word I found my way home ….
“‘Simon Peter, do you love me more than these?’ He asked me. I knew my answer had to be more than a trite response because Jesus would see right through me. It was a moment of truth for me. So I thought … but He never asked me about my denial. He never asked me about my failure. He never mentioned my bailing out and He didn’t even ask why. He just asked about my heart: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ Jesus asked pointing to the fish. ‘Do you love me more than these?’
“I thought for a moment then I said, ‘Yes, Lord, I do.’
“He smiled and said, ‘Then feed My sheep. Go back to what I asked you to do in the first place.’ With that one question I found my way home. At His bidding I did just that.
“I knew He wasn’t just talking about those fish, but about all the desires that I had allowed to come and cloud my assignment. ‘Do you love Me more than a good reputation? Do you love Me more than having money? Do you love Me more than having everyone like you? More than losing face or being successful in business? If everything were gone except your relationship with Me, would that be enough for you?’
“There He was, the Creator of the universe; the Author of life; the One who brought wealth and riches into the world; the One who, with a word, created light… And He was asking me if He was enough? ‘Yes, You’re enough.’
“Then He said, ‘Come, follow Me.’”
There are times in our lives when, like Peter, we want to call it quits. That’s okay if we’re quitting those things God wants to deliver us from. But to call it quits for the other reasons—to look good or to be in control; or for the many other fish that swim in the vast seas of our souls—that may not be God’s best for our lives.
My encouragement to you, in the midst of the worst, is to relinquish your life with reckless abandon and entrust your future to Jesus. Don’t call it quits. And don’t try to do it on your own. Simply surrender to Him. He’ll lead you to a place of abundance, in the midst of a land of emptiness. And then you’ll gain a strength beyond your own strength for the rest of your days. When you want to call it quits, discover the life-saving power of Jesus.
