Sunday Sermon - Knowing when to quit

Sometimes you just need to quit, cash it in, pull the plug, say goodbye. People try to help saying, "Hang in there," "Don't give up", "Quitters never win and winners never quit," "Eventually persistence pays off,", but has Kenny Rogers sang many years ago in his great song, The Gambler, "ya gotta know when to hold em, and know when to fold em"

There is a good article in the Jan/Feb, 2013 issue of Spirituality and Health entitled "The Joy Of Quitting" by Cash Peters.

Peters writes:

"For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, 'a dream that does not belong to them.' Eventually, it put me in the hospital. That's when I knew: I needed an urgent course correction before it was too late. So I quit."

Peters quotes Alan Cohen who wrote "Integrity is the condition on which the life you are living in the outer world matches who you are in the inner world."

I've quit things in my life when I realized that I was on the wrong track. Sometimes things just aren't right for you. The path you are on is turning you into someone you don't want to be and become. When this path diminishes your sense of who you are as a person at an essential level it is what I call soul murder. It is time to quit.

We often use the word "corruption" to refer to dysfunctional behavior in politics and in business, but it also can be applied to one's personal life. When one is living a lie, damaging and hurting others and oneself, it is time to quit.

If you are unhappy, anxious, depressed, stressed, angry maybe it's time for a change. As they say in Alcoholic Anonymous, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got." If you don't like what you've been getting, even if you don't know what to do, at least do something different.

One of most basic questions a human being can ask is "What would God (Higher Power, Life, Mother Nature, Cosmic Consciousness) have me do?" This is a question to be reflected on, studied, and investigated, because discerning God's will for us sometimes is crystal clear, but often a murky business. However, as St. Paul says to Timothy, "If God is with you who can be against you?" Indeed, you and God are a dynamic duo. Bringing your will into alignment with God's will for you is one of the most joyful, satisfying, fulfilling experiences in life which brings great peace and contentment.

Quitting can take great courage because it poses the risks of the unfamiliar next steps. In disappointing people you might not be any longer fulfilling their expectations and requirements, and yet, who do you listen to, all these other people or God?

The biggest things people quit are jobs, marriages, addictions, and habits to which one has become unconsciously and then consciously attached. We all are creatures of habit. Our habits make our lives more predictable and because of this predictability we feel more secure. Without our habitual ways of thinking, managing our emotions, and behaving, we feel anxious, adrift, disoriented. God, the Spirit Of Life, calls us to become our better selves. In order to become our better selves we must constantly grow and change. This requires quitting and letting go of things that no longer serve us well and facilitate our growth.

A sign of maturity and wisdom is knowing when to quit. As the bumper sticker says, "Change is inevitable. Progress is optional."

For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, “a dream that does not belong to them.” Eventually, it put me in the hospital.
That’s when I knew: I needed an urgent course correction before it was too late. So I quit.
- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/joy-quitting#sthash.o5oMPxER.dpuf

For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, “a dream that does not belong to them.” Eventually, it put me in the hospital.
That’s when I knew: I needed an urgent course correction before it was too late. So I quit.
- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/joy-quitting#sthash.o5oMPxER.dpuf

For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, “a dream that does not belong to them.” Eventually, it put me in the hospital.
That’s when I knew: I needed an urgent course correction before it was too late. So I quit.
- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/joy-quitting#sthash.o5oMPxER.dpuf

For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, “a dream that does not belong to them.” Eventually, it put me in the hospital.
That’s when I knew: I needed an urgent course correction before it was too late. So I quit.
- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/joy-quitting#sthash.o5oMPxER.dpuf