"How Bad Do You Want It?" blog by Rev. Burton Barr Jr.

Quitting is one of the easiest things in the world to do. I should know. I was a master of it. If universities gave degrees in quitting, I could have graduated summa cum laude. The problem is, I quit school.

School wasn't the only thing that I quit. I left my first wife after one year of marriage. I quit preaching three years after being ordained. I was kicked out of the marines before my tour of duty was completed. During the first fifty years of my life, the only thing that I ever completed was a prison sentence. I would have quit that too if I could have.

There is a poem that my father always quoted when he saw I wasn't doing my best. It was his philosophy of life. It says:
If a task is once begun
Never leave it till it's done
Be the labor, great or small
Do it well or not at all

The reason that so many of us do not succeed is because we don't want it bad enough. We don't want that degree bad enough to put in the work that it takes to graduate. We don't want to make the sports team bad enough to practice day in and day out. We don't want to excel at our jobs bad enough to learn everything that we can about our chosen profession.

Unfortunately, mediocrity is not only thriving in the secular world. It is prevalent in many of our churches as well. Some of us are not interested in being the best Christians that we can be. We don't go to Sunday school or Bible study. We don't read our Bibles or pray. A little rain or the threat of snow will keep us from going to church.

When I was hooked on drugs, I was the best junkie that I could be. Nothing could keep me from getting the drugs that I craved. My drugs meant more to me than my family, my friends, or my freedom.

There was a snowstorm in Chicago one winter that was so bad that cars or buses could not move. So I walked three miles through almost two feet of snow to the dope house and then three miles back. That's how bad I wanted to get high. If I was that committed to something that was killing me, shouldn't I be even more committed to the one who gave me life?

Do you want to be the best Christian that you can possibly be? If so, how bad do you want it?

- Author of "The Hoodlum Preacher", "Amazing Grace", and "He's Only A Prayer Away"

www.kobaltbooks.com
"The Hoodlum Preacher" Official Film Site:
www.thehoodlumpreacher.com

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