THROWING IN THE TOWEL

THROWING IN THE TOWEL
I recently listened to a young man share his testimony and he said a phase that stuck with me, “I felt like throwing in the towel.” I guess I have heard this phase many times before, but this time it stuck with me. When times are hard and it looks like we can't make ends meet, we might want to throw in the towel.

If you are a boxing fan you will be very familiar with the phase, “throwing in the towel” As a symbol that they were giving up or had had enough, the team that was losing would throw in the towel for its fighter, indicating that they had had enough and were going to accept defeat rather than carry on and risk damaging their fighter.

When we don't think that we can win, and a loss looks a grim inevitability, we might want to throw in the towel and give up.

Galatians 6:9 Paul encourages the church by sayings, “Let's not get tired of doing what is good, for at the right time we will reap a harvest-if we do not give up.”

All I can think of is a farmer who has planted all his fields with corn and one day later he goes out and waters his corn only to notice that his corn hasn't come up, and then he throws in the towel and says, “ I give up on waiting for this corn to come up.”

What is his problem? He isn't enduring the time it takes for the corn to sprout and come up.

Jesus complemented the church at Ephesus by saying; “You have endured, suffered trouble because of my name, and have not grown weary. ( Revelations 2:3)

They hadn't thrown in the towel because of the hardships they were having to endure because they were Christ followers.

We throw in the towel only when we are defeated. We give up when we feel we can't win. This is why we give up on our rebellious teenagers, we throw in the towel in our marriages, we give up on our friends who is caught in the grip if addiction, we throw in the towel at our jobs and walk out saying things are never going to change.

Throwing in the towel can be the defining quality of may of our lives even as Christians.

Thomson Edison did not exactly discover the bulb but improved it. Before Edison's experiment, the problem was that the bulb had a very short lifetime. He had to find a filament that would glow for a much longer time than before. In 1879, after performing 6,000 experiments on different materials, he observed that a carbon filament lasted the longest.

What if Thomas Edison had thrown in the towel? I do not know if I could have endured 6000 experiments, but we are all thankful today because he did.

We should also have hearts of gratitude to Jesus because he did not throw in the towel either.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” ( Hebrews 12:2-3 )

Prayer
Father we have to admit we have thrown in the towel to soon many times because we felt that victory was beyond our grasp. Jesus has given us an example in himself that we should not throw in the towel and give up because there is always hope and victory is assured. Father forgive us for giving up on those in our churches and families also. We know that you have never and will never throw the towel in and give up on us, so help us to do the same for others. In Jesus name amen.