Never Quit: For Those Who Win

“so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders,” 1 Thessalonians 4:12 NIV

How we live our life matters; life does not simply give casual moments to be squandered and thrown away or wasted in the passing of time. On the contrary, it is the moments of life that we can never gain again, even as you are reading this there is a moment passing by that you will never get back. For us, the question is, how are we living our life? Are we winning with our life or are we loosing our life? How we answer these questions is of utmost importance.

The critical component to winning and loosing in life is determined by posture. What is our posture toward the moments of life: one that positions us to live from a place of power, or one that we feel that life is out of control and we're a helpless passenger along for the ride?

I heard a phrase years ago by Mike Bickel that marked me life forever, "If you do not quit you win." Think about it: Rudy, the Norte Dame football player who only played for the practice squad who later played one snap in a game and was later carried off the field; the Jamaican Bobsled Team; Miracle on ice, USA vs. Russia Olympic hockey game of 1980; David and Goliath, a middle school aged shepherd boy who defeated the greatest warrior in the world, at the time. The same quality ran through all these stories--a refusal to quit. The obstacle in front of them gave in before they did--they won, because they did not quit despite the odds. Here's another way to put it, how many people have won something by quitting? Easy answer--zero. It is not that these people did not face challenges, quite the opposite, they all faced challenges that seemed insurmountable, but their posture was a refusal to quit despite such things.

Why is this important? All these people had won themselves before they won others; they were winners on the inside before they won the battle in front of them. This is also true with us--we have to win ourselves before we conquer the fight in front us.

For us to see the truth of this all we have to do is look around at those watching Rudy, the Jamaican's, US hockey team, and David. How many people did not believe they could do it, how many people told them to quit or stop trying? The only winner in those situations are those first confidently possessing it within themselves. The other people around them were not speaking that into them, they took hold of it themselves and conquered.

How does this relate to the moments of our life? No one can win for you; only you can win for yourself. No one made Rudy put his pads on day after day, or the Jamaican's practice, or the US hockey team train, or David gather the five smooth stones from the river. They all chose to take the victory themselves. The truth about all of us is that there is fight within us somewhere. Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone over a personal preference? That's the fight working in you. Maybe not in the way it was intended, but it is there nonetheless. To win in life we have to fight--fight to win.

This fighting to win in life is not mere violence; rather, it is virtue and fortitude. It is simply, as I've already said, a posture refusing to quit in the face of great odds.

This winning is so victorious because it takes the winner, and those benefiting from it, to great heights. Which brings us back to the opening quote, "win the respect of outsiders." Winning brings those who were once outside to the inside. It repositions the outcast into belonging, the needy to fulfillment, the hungry to the banquet table, the lost to becoming found, the hurting to healing. There first needs to be a winner to have winnings, which requires us to be those who win; those who refuse to give in.

It is possible that the obstacles you are facing are not for your detriment, but for your own victory and the victory of those around you. The only way to find out is to never quit, for "if you do not quit, you win."