We began the project, class, job, hobby with enthusiasm, vigor, and ambitious dreams. Then came the inevitable bump in the road, sometimes several bumps. The class was tougher than we thought or the prof was boring. After a few mistakes, we’re tempted to abandon the project and begin a new one. As for the job, we had at least five reasons for quitting and looking for a better one. We’ve all been there – tempted to quit. Henry Ford had a dream – a gas-engine driven buggy. A horseless carriage. Building that first car Ford quickly realized there was a better way, and was tempted to quit and start over. Some inner wisdom kept him at it. He would later say that if he had not finished that first car, he probably would never have finished any car. It is difficult to finish, especially to finish well.
It was an especially difficult college semester. I was behind in my tuition payments, struggling with French, discouraged. In a timely chapel talk our president, Dr. V Raymond Edman, spoke to us about the Discipline of Determination, reminding us that it was too soon to quit. That talk kept me in school and has become a watchword of our family and many others. Two favorite verses: Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to begin it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means (2 Corinthians 8:11). You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised (Hebrews 10:36).