“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ~ John Wooden
Discouragement is a pretty common thing among God’s people. We become discouraged quite easily. If someone says the wrong thing to us, if we make a mistake, if we fail at an initial effort, we oftentimes become discouraged and decide that it is not worth trying again.
I see the confrontation of discouragement in the Way of the Cross. If anyone had the right to become discouraged, it would have been Jesus. Tried, convicted, and flogged, Jesus was set on a course to Calvary. Along the way, because He was exhausted and weak from the beatings, He fell under the weight of the cross.
That would have been the perfect opportunity for discouragement to take root. Discouragement could easily have tempted Him not to get up and, instead, to give up His quest. However, Jesus got up. Later in His journey, Jesus fell a second time. That would have been another occasion to abandon Himself to discouragement. He got up again. Finally, He fell a third time. That fall was at His destination. He had arrived. He had not allowed discouragement to overcome Him.
Too many times, we succumb to our falls and become discouraged. We say to ourselves or to others, “Why should I try again? I failed. It’s not worth doing. I give up.”
When those times happen, a quick fix for us would be to ask ourselves a very simple question: “Did Jesus ever give up on us?” We all know the answer to that question.
If Jesus did not give up on us, why should we give up on Him?
FAITH ACTION: If you have let discouragement cause you to give up on any part of the practice of your faith, renew your effort today.