Don't quit...

“I quit!” The last time I remember saying those words in all seriousness was way back in the fall of 1982. My family had moved from Sacramento, California, to LeGrand, Iowa, early that summer. There had been over five hundred students in my class at Sacramento High. At LeGrand-Dunbar-Ferguson High School there were just thirty-nine juniors.

In Sacramento, I hadn’t participated in sports at all. There were try outs and I was afraid to fail. At LDF, anyone could play as a walk-on, so I bravely showed up to the school’s first basketball practice. I discovered that day that you can’t sit out of a sport for three years and expect to be playing at the same level as those with more experience. I was awful. I played and moved like a junior higher, not a third year high schooler.

I survived the first practice without puking and headed to the locker room with the rest of the team. Our coach, Mr. Berggren, walked in with us. He talked to us for awhile and then moved to his office so we could shower. That’s when Todd Phillips started in on me. He snapped me with his towel and berated me. Soon others joined in. I wasn’t used to this kind of treatment. Band people don’t treat others like this and that’s all I’d known for three years…band. I was upset.

The next day the same thing happened. Mr. Berggren talked with us. He left. I got nailed. Day after day the tormenting continued until finally I’d had enough. I talked with my dad first and then went to see Mr. Berggren. Standing in front of my coach’s desk, I said those words. “I quit.” I felt bad. I’d never quit anything I’d started before. I just couldn’t handle the pressure.

I learned later in life that quitting when the pressure gets to you doesn’t really make a lot of sense. It’s endurance that creates character. It’s perseverance that makes you strong.

Perhaps you’re facing difficulties in life because of your faith in God. Your coworkers or classmates are mocking you because you’ve chose God’s ways over the world’s. Don’t give up! Think of Jesus. Remember what he did for you on the cross. He is with you and will help you.

Let Hebrews 12:13 encourage you. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Side note: I looked up Mr. Berggren on the internet while I was writing this. It turns out he retired this past spring at the close of the 2010 school year. He was the boys basketball and track coach at LDF before and after it consolidated to become East Marshall High. His total tenure...34 years! I didn't give up entirely on sports after that rough start in basketball. I tried out track and loved it. Mr. Berggren helped me excel as a runner and I ended up qualifying for the state track meet my senior year. Todd Phillips was on the mile relay team I qualified with.

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