Napoleon Hill, in his famous book Think and Grow Rich, tells of a miner who struck gold during the gold rush.
The first load of ore indicated one of the richest mines in the area, but then the vein of gold disappeared.
He kept drilling, but with no success. Finally, discouraged, he sold the machinery to a junk dealer for a few hundred dollars and caught the train back east.
The junk dealer, thinking there was still hope, engaged a mining engineer who understood fault lines.
Sure enough, the vein of gold picked up again just three feet from where the miner quit digging, earning millions.
There are times that all of us feel like quitting.
Things aren't working out.
No matter how hard we try, nothing seems to help. We lose heart, lose hope, quit.
Most of the time we never find out how close we were to striking gold if we had just tried longer.
Whether it is starting a new career, rescuing a troubled marriage, learning a new skill, hanging on to our faith, or just hanging on, it is too soon to quit.
Louis L'Amour said, "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."
King David wrote a song about his love for and dependence on God (Psalm 27).
In it, he references enemies fighting him, family forsaking him, armies besieging him, false witnesses lying about him, and feeling rejected by God - all stuff that could make you want to quit. But he ends his song with this (v.14): "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
Don't quit. You may only be three feet from gold.
Mike Mawhorter [email protected]
