Charlie The Fish and "I QUIT"!

All of us that walk the road of life have something in common.  It seems there comes a time when all we can muster up to say is, "I QUIT"!  I have a strong feeling that as you read those two words, something or someone comes to mind. 

Today, as I sat at the kitchen table teaching math with my distracted kindergartner, something strange happened.   With a loud, frightened shout from my math student I heard, "MOM>>MOM>>>MOM>>> Charlie...look at Charlie! He is trapped and dying...help him"!!!  Our electric blue, Beta fish named, "Charlie" was upside down, stuck underneath a rock... dying. I quickly moved the decorative rock and he was set free.  Charlie swam up to the top of the bowl in relief! 

Now that is just one of the many "Charlie" stories.   He used to be my mom's fish for her school classroom.  Her students found him lying on the carpet one day.  My mom picked up his dry, scaly body and put him back into the bowl for the time being (thinking he was dead).  Within a few seconds, he was swimming around like new.  Who knew how long he was laying on the floor? ....Or the time Charlie found a  home with my sister and her four small children, sticking random objects into his bowl.   My sister confessed to the neglect of poor Charlie.  He went for days and sometimes even weeks, without being feed or having his water changed.   So we decided to adopt him.  But, I have to say...our family was not any better! Charlie has had many salted peanuts dumped into his bowl and been chased countless times by little fingers.

This fish is simply unstoppable!  He should have died 100 times already. The amazing thing about Charlie is that he always finds a way to survive!  That little fish is a fighter!  It is in his cold-blooded body to fight and win!  Although his flowing fins are limp and his bright blue is now a grayish-blue...he keeps going! 

If only we could all be more like Charlie, instead of saying,"I QUIT".

This week, in the quietness of my heart and world around me, this is what I have witnessed...
A few days ago, there stood a 300+ pound African-American woman in the gym locker room. She was desperately trying to put her shoes on.  It was a very difficult task for her, as she couldn't lean forward very well.  By the look on her face, she was saying,"I quit".  But she persevered.  She kept pulling those shoe laces and squeezing her foot in.  She did it!  She keeps coming back to the gym, doing the same frustrating routine.  Facing the same starring eyes of those "more fit" around her. She is fighting to save her health and life.  It is not easy to be in the crowds, get in a swim suit for the water fitness class and workout at her weight...but she's facing her giant called, "fear". 

She is a fighter.  She is like "Charlie".  She will not say ,"I QUIT"!

And then there is the mom who is at her last straw with raising small children.  She is tired of cleaning what is undone a few minutes later.  She is frustrated at saying "no" over and over to a toddler misbehaving.  She is worn-out, overwhelmed and sleep deprived. By the look on her face, she was saying,"I quit". The laundry piles up, the kids are fighting and she can't seem to hold it together another second.  But somehow she searches deep within and by God's strength, she tucks her children in bed, reads them a story and kisses their forheads' goodnight.  With love in her eyes and a smile in her heart, she does it again the next day.

She is a fighter.  She is like "Charlie".  She will not say ,"I QUIT"!

What about the hardworking father, who is running on four or five hours of sleep, waking up before the sun arises to pour a cup of coffee?!  He grabs his bag and rushes out the door just in time for morning traffic, as he drives 60-90 minutes to work. He "sucks it up", humbles himself and deals with a stressful work place, annoying co-workers, an unsatisfied boss and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. By the look on his face, he was saying,"I quit". After an exhausting-full-work day, he walks through the door to his home in the late evening, hugs his kids, greets his wife with a kiss.   The next morning he wakes up and does it over and over again for the rest of his life.  All the while.... he never complains.  He is a family man, who provides safety and security and loves endlessly.

He is a fighter.  He is like "Charlie".  He will not say ,"I QUIT"!

And then somewhere in the world right now...There are people who have really said those two famous last words.  "I QUIT".  They have quit on themselves, on God, on their families, on their friends.  They are not fighting.  They are not like "Charlie".  They are trapped, stuck under the rock.  Or they have jumped out of the fish bowl, lying on the floor ...dying. Today,  there is a baby aborted from a teenager who quit her pregnancy.  A teenager who quit on life and committed suicide. A child placed in foster care; from parents who "quit".  A man drinking himself into a coma.  A wife sleeping around and quitting on her husband.  A father abusing a mother.  A husband and wife divorcing and quitting on the unity of marriage.  A girl starving herself to death.   Gangs shooting other gangs. Somewhere... all around us... are "quitters". 

But God has not quit on the "quitters".  God is forgiving.  God is understanding.  God is all-knowing.  God is everywhere at once.  God will lift up that rock and bring "quitters" to safety.  God will put "quitters" back in the fish bowl... if only they would let HIM. 

It is God who makes us a fighter.  It is God who makes us like "Charlie". 

It is God who keeps us from saying, "I QUIT".