Read this when you want to quit

My good friend David Stewart Jr. posted this poem written by the great missionary Charles Greenaway about not quitting. We all have times we want to quit. I'm not much on poems, but something tells me I will be reading this one every once in a while:

If I Should Quit
By Rev. Dr. Charles Greenaway

“If I should quit, what would the gain be?
Would the battle be lost? Would I really be free?
No, the door would not close, nor the battle cease,
Because God would have another to stand in the breach,
If I quit.

If I should quit, what would I do?
Seek shelter from the heat, forget the cry of the lost?
Would I be happy for a time, then find I was through,
And spend my time praying for something to do?
Saying, ‘Oh God, why did I quit?’

If I should quit, I would find that God had not!
The battle would still rage, the Church would march on.
The wind would keep blowing, the Spirit filling,
Only I would be farther and farther behind, unwilling,
And wondering, ‘Oh God, why did I quit?’

If I should quit, what could I say to God?
He who called me, and the people who sent me?
And the pagan who trusted me to show him the way?
And to the Spirit’s urging day after day?
‘Oh God, I can’t quit!’

If I should quit, let it be when I am dead . . . !
Not while I’m alive, nor when I’m dissatisfied!
Not when I’m criticized, or minimized, or ostracized!
But please, Oh God, let quitting time for me be-
When I am dead.”