Whether giving up or giving out, both can be ruinous …

There is a great truth we desperately need to be alert to every single day, which is this: the devil is a liar.

It is vitally important we have a conscious awareness of that because one of the great battles each and every day of our human experience is to avoid believing the craftily camouflaged lies strewn by the enemy as destructive land mines in our lives, and instead, see and respond to what is true. If the devil can get us to buy into just one of the many lies laid as traps within any 24-hour period of our lives, the result can be to misdirect ourselves in a wrong direction that brings terrible consequences.

Here’s one lie people in the Western world have bought into in a wholesale way, as described by Wayne Muller:

“I’m so busy.” We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset, to whiz through our obligations without time for a single, mindful breath, this has become the model of successful life.

And that’s a lie.

I was reminded of what an ugly lie the boast of busyness is just a few days ago when I pulled into the parking lot of a Starbucks. As I gazed across the street, what I saw and what came to mind is something I shared in a Facebook post at the time:

When I arrived at where I’m at currently, I saw a homeless man across the street, just lying on the sidewalk. It struck me – there’s a difference between giving up and giving out (it appeared he had given out right where he was). Giving up is to lose hope and stop trying; giving out is reaching the end of yourself, you’re tapped out. In Exodus 17:8-13, when Moses had to keep his arms raised with him holding up his staff so the battle would go well for Israel, eventually his arms began to tire and slowly began to lower – he wasn’t giving up, he was giving out. Like Moses getting the help of Aaron and Hur, we, also, can give out without the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

As I saw the man sprawled on the sidewalk, I was looking at what the truth of exhaustion looks like. We toil and strive at so many things (many that do not matter), that we exhaust ourselves! And sometimes, as with Moses, the battles in life can last so long and be so intense that we grow weary to the point of giving out.

If you’ve ever pondered the value of friendship …

If you’ve ever wondered about the value of Christian fellowship …

… it is precisely for times like these, when it feels like the weight of the world is on our shoulders with no help and no answers to the point we’re tempted to give up; or for those long battles in life when we have reached the end of ourselves and we’re giving out.

That’s when friends step in.

That’s when brothers and sisters in Christ step up.

We encourage one another to fan into new flames the embers of hope, and to uphold one another until the battle is won.

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing,” 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ,” Galatians 6:2.

Our great hope that empowers us to have the strength to thrive even in difficult circumstances, and to find refreshing when we grow weak, is God Himself:

“Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint,” Isaiah 40:28-31.

If you’re feeling like you want to give up, or that you’re giving out, trust that God can bring refreshing, renewal, and transformation to your life. And as children of God, let us encourage one another — and especially — let us deny ourselves and step into the lives of others to strengthen and support them when they’re giving out.

Scotty