Title: How to Keep Going When You Feel Like Giving Up
Text: Jeremiah 1:4-8, 20:7-18 and 32
Thesis: Jeremiah is an example of resilience in his refusal to give up when things get difficult.
The Bible in 90 Days Whole Church Challenge
We have just completed Week 8 of our Bible in 90 Days Whole Church Challenge reading. Early on in our reading we became aware of the cyclical nature of Israel’s relationship with God: They enjoyed God’s blessing for a time then fell into sin which resulted in God’s allowing them to suffer the consequences of their sin, which usually meant a time of oppression by their pagan neighbors. After having suffered sufficiently, they would come to their senses, repent of their sin and ask God to intercede for them and save them from their oppressors. God would then deliver them and restore them to a time of prosperity and blessing.
The Book of Jeremiah is the story of how Israel has persisted in rebelling against the will of God and God sending a prophet, Jeremiah, to confront them and foretell their destruction at the hands of the Babylonians and an impending period of exile. In the story we see something of the challenges Jeremiah faced as an unpopular bearer of bad news and his struggle to persevere despite the cost to him personally.
Introduction
I want to offer a disclaimer before I begin today. There are times in life when, after having given something our best shot, we have to give up or surrender to the inevitable. I have just finished reading Exiles by Ron Hansen in which he recreates the story of five nuns who were traveling to the United States from Germany on the German ship The Deutschland. In 1875, on its maiden voyage, The Deutschland was caught in a blizzard and ran aground soon after it was underway. The five nuns all perished in the ship wreck. Hansen’s book not only tells their story but also the parallel story of Jesuit poet priest, Gerald Manley Hopkins’ writing of his famous, 35 stanza poem memorializing the disaster.
At some point all the striving in the world could not save The Deutschland. At some point all who survived had to leave the sinking ship.
So my thoughts today are not about knowing when to bail out of a plane about to crash or when to get in the lifeboat when a ship is sinking. It is about being resilient in persevering through the challenges of life.
It is about having grit. It is about digging in and giving it your best shot. It is about playing until the whistle blows. It is about playing hard to win. And if a win is not forthcoming, playing hard enough to tie the game and go into overtime or extra-innings.
Tony Grossi wrote a story in the Plain Dealer Reporter on November 4, 2001 titled”A Stunner and a Bummer.” It was the story of a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Chicago Bears. With only 28 seconds remaining in the game the Browns led 21 – 7. The Browns were all but packed up and ready to go home when the Bears scored making the game 21 – 14. The Bears then recovered their onside kick and threw a Hail Mary pass that resulted in another touchdown tying the game at 21-21. The game went into overtime and 2 minutes and 43 seconds later the Bears intercepted a Browns pass and ran for a touchdown… the Bears win 28-21. The Bears basically scored two touchdowns in 28 seconds and then a third in overtime to move a 21 –7 deficit to a 28 – 21 win.
I know it was just another football game but games like that are metaphors for life. It might have looked and felt hopeless being behind 21 – 7 with only 28 seconds remaining in regular play… but it was not hopeless.
In the game of life, when life looks and feels hopeless, what do you do?
What do you do when you feel like giving up? The first thing you do is:
I. Revisit Your Calling
The word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Do not be afraid for I am with you and will rescue you.” Jeremiah 1:4-8
In this passage there are three key elements that are helpful to us in if we are to persevere through challenging times.
A. The first truth is that God knew us before we were born.
God assured Jeremiah at the very onset that his arrival on the human scene did not surprise God.
Raccoons usually mate between December and June and after a gestation period of 63 days most litters are born in April or May. Raccoons usually have a litter of 3 to 5 young who hang around the nest for about twelve weeks. After twelve weeks the young follow their mother on her daily or nightly foraging for food runs. One evening Bonnie called for me to come and see something. When I got there she pointed to a mother raccoon with three baby raccoons in tow, making their way along behind our garage.
I did not know the mother raccoon lived in our neighborhood and I certainly had no idea that she had carried her three young for 63 days and now that they were twelve weeks old… they were venturing out of their nest perhaps for the first time. I had no foreknowledge of their existence.
That is not that way it is with people. We don’t just suddenly show up at the Wal Mart with our mothers after a nine month gestation period and a few weeks in the nest… God doesn’t scratch his head and say, “Would you look at that… there goes a mother and her litter. I didn’t know they lived in my neighborhood.” God has foreknowledge of our existence.
God says that he knows us before we are even formed in the womb. God knows our pre-embroyonic forms or selves. But more than that, God told Jeremiah that he not only knew him before he was formed but that he [God] formed Jeremiah in his mother’s womb.
There are no unwanted or untimely pregnancies with God. No one should ever think of themselves as an unwanted person or an inconvenient or unplanned person . C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p. 46)
Whenever anyone is tempted to devalue or denigrate or dismiss oneself as insignificant and without value or purpose, God wants that person to know they were known by God before they were and that they are a product of God’s creative activity. God says, “Before I formed you, I knew you.”
B. The second truth is that God also set us apart or called us or gave us a purpose in life before we were born.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight… in him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” Ephesians 1:4 and 11
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:15-16
God not only knew and created Jeremiah, God also gave Jeremiah a purpose for living. God appointed him the role of prophet. The word appointed may be understood as a “calling” or being “set apart” for a purpose or as a “consecration.” The point God made with Jeremiah is that his existence is meaningful and purposeful. God wanted Jeremiah to know that he had a plan for his life. God wanted Jeremiah to know that he wasn’t just another mouth to feed. You could even say that before anyone is born, God sets us apart or plans for us to do something with our existence.
The bible says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
In the story Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood played the role of an aging curmudgeon named Walter Kowalski. Walt lives next door to a Hmong family who has a teen-aged boy named Thao. One day they are together in Walt’s garage, which is filled with tools or every kind. They are working on a home repair and Walt, wanting to mentor the boy, picks up a can of WD-40, a roll of duct tape and a vice grip, hands them to Thao as a gift and says, “You can do 80 percent of household repairs with these three things.”
My dad was an auto mechanic and one of my memories from my youth was when a Snap-On Tool Truck or a MAC Tool Truck would stop by the shop. The tool trucks were loaded with every imaginable kind of tool for every imaginable kind of job. There is no such thing as a universal tool… A can of WD-40, a roll of duct tape and a vice grip do not a tool kit make. Every tool is designed to do a specific thing and the more tools a mechanic has – the more jobs he can tackle.
Calling someone a “tool” is generally thought a derogative way to speak of or to someone. A “tool” is someone who is easily used by or taken advantage of by someone or the system, so to speak. I do not use the term “tool” in that context. When I refer to a tool I am thinking of something or someone that is created to do a specific function or job.
God wanted Jeremiah to know and God wants us to know that we exist to function in a specific way in order to accomplish what God has planned for us to do. God says, “I knew you, I formed you and I set you apart with purpose in life.”
So whenever you are tempted to denigrate or devalue or dismiss yourself as of little or no consequence, God says, “Hey! Wait a minute… that is simply not the case. You were created in such a way or formed in such a way as to serve God and others as only you can do.
When we are tempted to give it up, we need to revisit our call and hear God say once again, “I have appointed you / set you apart / consecrated you to live purposefully. The struggles of life do not negate the reason for our existence.
C. The third truth is that God, having called us, intends to accompany us on our journey.
This is what God said to Joshua when he called him to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
No matter how complex, chaotic, or confusing your circumstances may be, God will not abandon you. God will give you all you need in order to persevere through to the end.
I remember hearing a well known (at the time) Baptist preacher speaking on the text stressing God’s promise of his presence: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” He spoke of the need to read the promise of God with the emphasis with which it is intended. He said that when you read, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” you need to understand that what God was really saying to the insightful reader is this, “No, I will not, never leave you! No, I will not never forsake you!”
God assured Jeremiah from the get-go and God assures us as well of his knowledge of us, his forming of us into the persons we are in order that we may live with purpose. And God assures us that despite any circumstances in life, God is always graciously present in our lives… empowering us and sustaining us through the challenges.
The takeaway from Jeremiah’s experience is this: When we find ourselves questioning who we are and why God has placed us in a particular circumstance, we are to affirm three things:
• God knew me before I was and formed me as I am.
• God called me to this place and this time for a purpose even before I was born!
• God will never, never, never, never, never leave me! God will never, never, never, never ever forsake me! No, I am not, never, ever alone!
A second thing you can do when you feel like giving up is simply be honest with God. Tell God how you feel.
II. Respond Honestly
God, you deceived me, and I was deceived… I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. Cursed by the day I was born. Jeremiah 20:7-8 and 14
God had asked Jeremiah to do a rather unusual thing. Jeremiah was to visit a local potter, purchase a clay pot and then in a public setting, smash the jar and say, “This is what God is going to do to this nation and to this city… God is going to smash you beyond repair.” Jeremiah 19:10
His little object lesson did not go over well with the people or with the priest who upon hearing of Jeremiah’s antics, ordered him beaten and put in stocks. Jeremiah was not pleased… this was not part of the deal. When we are in the place God wants us to be and doing what God wants us to do, this kind of stuff isn’t supposed to happen. So Jeremiah reacted.
This rather extended prayer is a “no-holds-barred” outpouring of Jeremiah’s frustrations.
A. Jeremiah felt betrayed. Jeremiah told God that he thought God deceived him.
B. Jeremiah felt abused. Jeremiah complained to God about being ridiculed all day long and how having spoken God’s words have brought him nothing but insult and reproach.
C. Jeremiah felt total despair. And finally, Jeremiah told God he wished that he had never been born.
Just a few moments ago we were talking about how God had called Jeremiah and how God had assured Jeremiah that he would always be with him through anything and everything. Jeremiah has not forgotten God’s call or God’s promise of his presence. In fact Jeremiah remembers it all very well and that is why he is so gassed. That’s why he accuses God of having deceived him. The life to which God had called him was too hard and he was sick of being the “bad news voice of prophecy” to the Jewish people. And he was so discouraged by the way things have turned out that he wishes he had never been born so he would not have had to go through this.
Jeremiah is either:
• Crazy and sacrilegious for thinking he can talk to God like he did;
• Or he is just so ticked-off that he doesn’t care anymore what God things about him or does to him;
• Or he trusts that God is big enough and gracious enough to hear what he is feeling.
Jeremiah is not the first person to lay it all out to God. Moses prayed, “If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now…” Numbers 11:15. Once when totally exhausted Elijah prayed, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life… I Kings 19:4. King David cried out to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1-2 (If I recall correctly, Jesus prayed that exact prayer when he died on the cross.)
Maybe God is bigger and better than we realize. Maybe the God who loved us and called us before we were is not at all removed from our lives. Maybe God knows how much we want to please him and sees how hard it is to be in some places and is totally sympathetic to our struggles. Maybe, as the Psalmist wrote in 103:13-14, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are, he knows we are only dust [people].”
The take away from this incident in Jeremiah’s life is really quite simple. When you feel you have faithfully followed God and find yourself feeling disillusioned or disappointed… find a quiet place and pour your heart out to God. Tell God your frustrations, disappointments and even your unmet expectations. It is in being honest with God that we find that we are trusting God.
In that Jeremiah went on to serve God as a prophet to the Jewish people for some forty years, I assume that somewhere in all the disappointment , God reassured him of his call upon his life and the promise of his presence in all things.
The third thing we can do when we are tempted to give up is remember God’s faithfulness.
III. Remember God’s Faithfulness
This is what the Lord God says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them… once more fields will be bought in this land. Jeremiah 32:42-43 (32:36-41)
When we get to chapter 32, things are very dire. Jerusalem is under siege by the Babylonian army. The situation is bleak to say the least. Defeat and exile are imminent. It is hopeless. They are down 21 – 7 and there is only 28 seconds remaining on the clock to play.
Earlier in Jeremiah 19, God asked Jeremiah to buy a clay pot and then smash it as an object lesson to illustrate how God would allow the Israelites to be destroyed for their disobedience? Now that the destruction is upon them, as a second object lesion, God asks Jeremiah to buy a field.
Jeremiah’s purchase of his uncle’s field for seventeen shekels of silver, having the deed signed, notarized and placed in a clay jar [the early Israelite version of a safety deposit box] was to demonstrate, that despite the coming upheaval and displacement of the Jewish people, one day they would return and once again they would buy and sell property and life would resume as it was before.
That was God’s promise to Jeremiah and the Israelite people, “As I have brought this great calamity upon this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.”
After Jeremiah had bought the field he had a little conversation with God. In 32:24-25 he points out to God the obvious. The Babylonians have built siege ramps to take the city of Jerusalem. The fall of the city and the carting away of its citizenry is imminent. And Jeremiah says, almost in derision, “[All this has happened] and you say to me, ‘buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed.” It seemed to be a ridiculous exercise in futility to Jeremiah.
In 1951 a terrible flood inundated Manhattan, Kansas. So they decided to build a dam on the Big Blue River to control the flow of water in the future. The dam was completed and the Tuttle Creek Lake / Reservoir above the dam began to fill in 1962. When the reservoir finally filled to capacity, ten towns along the Big Blue River were submerged beneath the waters of Tuttle Creek Lake. The only town to relocate was Randolph… the others are remembered only as “drowned towns.” Everyone who lived on the floodplain for Tuttle Creek Lake had to move… everything remaining would be inundated and lost.
Now imagine that as everyone was packing up and moving out of the way of the rising lake waters, God said, “Go and buy up some of the land that is going to be covered by the water and lost to the reservoir.” How dumb would that seem?
What God had asked Jeremiah to do seemed like a dumb thing to do. If everyone was being carted off and all was to be lost, why buy land that will be lost?
Conclusion:
But this is what God said to Jeremiah,
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is there anything too hard for me?”
The newly purchased field was God’s way of saying there is a future. Some day you will come back and life will resume as it was before. God was saying that he was faithful and able to keep his word to Jeremiah and the Israelite people.
The take away from Jeremiah’s experience is the reminder to keep God’s question at the forefront of our minds and on the tips of our tongues when we are tempted to cash it in, “Is anything too hard for me?”
