So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

 

In 1941, Winston Churchill was giving a speech at his old boarding school and told the young men there to, famously, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never”

I’ve heard this called the “never give up” speech, and thought that was what he said, and truly, if you google “Winston Churchill Never Give Up” you’ll see how often it’s misquoted.

Churchill was telling the gathered crowd of young men that in tough times, we don’t give in.
We don’t give in to fear, to worry, to anger, to bitterness.  
Never ever ever give in.
So while saying “never give in” is not quite the same as “never give up,”  I do think the misquote is trying to get at the same things.  

In the text today – Paul reminds his gathered church in Corinth to never give up.
Paul knows that just becoming a follower of Christ doesn’t mean everything magically gets better.  It doesn’t mean that life is suddenly easier.
Earlier he puts this reality right out there:
“We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.”

Yeah.
Life sucks sometimes.
I mean really.
It’s not sunshine and roses all the time.
It’s hard.
So hard.
Being a follower of God doesn’t mean life gets magically easier.
But it DOES mean something in the hard stuff.
God has promised to be with us.
In all the hard stuff.

And when we trust God to be present in the good and in the bad, we have hope.  
Because God with us doesn’t just mean he’s sitting there letting bad stuff happen over and over.
No way.
We believe that God is at work.
At WORK, people.
Not passive, not distant, not small.  

And the work of God is redeeming work.
God is always working to make things new.  
To take the crappiest crap of life, the most broken parts of us and of the world and make them whole again.  
So we don’t lose heart.
God is at work right now.
And even though from the outside it looks bad, God is working to heal and mend and redeem and renew.

Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” says this verse in such a lovely, lovely way:  

So we’re not giving up. How could we!
Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.

I mean, how could we?!
How could we give up when God never will?
Peterson says the phrase “unfolding grace” which I just love.
Because it’s not just grace, but grace that is unfolding.
Grace that is getting bigger, grace that is opening up, expanding
Hear this promise today.
Not a good day, not a bad day goes by without God’s grace all over it.
God is at work.
Right now.  
Even if we can’t see it, even if we can’t feel it, God is there.