I have a confession to make: I used to be very, very (did I say very?) competitive.  It was bad.  I remember once in college of almost taking someone’s nose and face off because he ticked me off.  He was tripping me, holding me, holding my shorts, you know…little things like that.  I had had enough so I went up for a rebound, wrapped the ball in one hand/wrist and let the right elbow fly.  I missed rearranging his face by barely inches. I am not proud of that moment but it was like “don’t mess with Bill.”    I am not really sure when it came to a head and I began to think it was stupid to be so out-for-blood.  I do know that was part of the reason I didn’t play ball my Senior year in college when I had quite a future that year.  Funny thing: I rationalized it all by saying, “Well, I play hard.”   No, the real reason was I was out for blood and wouldn’t back down.  There simply was no quit in me. Time moved on and while my fiercely competitive spirit died a welcome death, I still wanted to come out on top.  Sometimes I just didn’t know how to quit. That is good in athletics but not always good in daily relationships, especially when your personality says you want to have the last word.

But sometimes failure to quit is good.  Like not quitting on your family or your job or your church or your marriage.  Especially not quitting on your faith.  You see…there are times when everything in us wants to give up and call it quits, we need to keep fighting.  Admittedly, in the face of severe opposition it is hard to maintain our position, to stick to our guns, but living a life for Christ requires that we do.  In this series on Funny Math, we are at the point of adding to our self-control…perseverance.  Not quitting.  Not throwing in the towel.  Both books of Peter are filled with advice and suggestions about this topic.  I am actually going to take a different approach this Sunday by taking a “walk” through Peter to show why Christians could want to quit and then show that Peter tells them five values God brings about through trials .  You can actually see the outline at the church’s website if you care to look.    I would appreciate your prayers for this weekend.  Thanks for praying.

Special thanks to Dan Drewes for the banner.