Press Through

I'm only two papers and a few posts away from completing my first period (three weeks) of my first semester of my Masters in Organizational Leadership. When I got an email from the accounting department of Regent University reminding me that the last day to drop classes for a 100% refund was January 22 I had to really do some soul searching. When I ruled out dropping both of the classes then I thought about dropping just one of the classes.

Nope, can't do it. I've got to press through this.

There have been many times in my life when I wanted to quit. There have been more times than I can count. I wanted to quit school in first grade...just didn't mesh well with my agenda. I wanted to quit every church that I pastored more times than I can count. I wanted to walk away from challenges at Lakeview Church and challenges at the district office...but I didn't walk away because of challenges.

Yeah, I've quit a lot of things in my life. I quit Pee-Wee football because the coach (one of the Seaver boys) was a jerk... (feels good to say that on the www, wish I could remember his first name!!! I quit the band in 5th grade because what the kids who were not in band were doing seemed more interesting to me...I wish I hadn't quit though I really have no desire to know how to play the trumpet.

I've left some churches and ministry posts in my life but I can say that I've never quit a ministry post because I couldn't bear the challenge...its always because I truly felt in my heart that God was transitioning our lives.

When I was a teenager who professed a call into the ministry my pastor (Billy Cotton) gave me a little bit of advice that has stuck with me for many years. He said, "don't ever leave a place when things are going bad, always leave when they are going good." My friend Mickey Davis used to say when it's time to go the focus has to be on going and not leaving. Its about walking into the future...not walking away from challenges.

I don't like to walk away from a good fight. That's the only thing that bothered me about leaving Lakeview Church a few weeks ago. I really wanted to see all of the challenges through--but I knew it was time to pass them off to someone else so I could pursue what was really in my heart. It was about the future that I could see in my spirit.

Nothing of greatness or significance can be gained by quitting. It is always by pressing through.

This Masters thing is tough and I'm just wading in...I'm going to press through because when I press through in something I'm supposed to do I always find that there's something grand on the other side.

Keep pressing through!