Quitting

“Mom, call my teacher and tell her I quit,” a kindergartner firmly stated after seven days of school. He had begun excited and eager, waking his mom on Saturday morning to head off to the bus stop.
His older brother had been going to school for “years,” his mom and dad were now home alone. Somebody had to keep an eye on them. And so the journey began, reasoning with a five-year-old that he could not “quit” going to school.
We laugh because we can relate. How often we have started a new job or project and wanted to quit because it was too hard, boring or just-not-what-we-expected. Maybe we just missed the old life. It was comfortable.
In the second book of the Bible, Exodus, the Israelis miraculous journey from Egyptian slavery to freedom is very similar to our resistance to change. This book recounts God’s intervention in their freedom and the reader wonders at the children of Israel’s stubbornness. They continually distort the truth to justify quitting the journey.
I wonder how many times you and I have done that?
Within the thread of this story is the truth of the Gospel. Christ came to save us from being afraid. Specifically, we are afraid of changing, the very thing that is key to our freedom.
Like our little friend who wanted to quit, we need to be reasoned with. God has that covered too. "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 NIV