As a lively college-ager beginning to follow Christ, I confided in my youthful energy much more than I should have. I was convinced that the bright flame of my own will-power would never burn out.

During one particularly traumatic semester, I attended college full time, participated in as many church events as possible, studied various biblical subjects and, all the while, stayed up every night studying for a lucrative career as a database developer. I gloried in the fact that I was doing everything I wanted to do, all at once. It seemed like I would never burn out physically. But this flesh-centered faith belied my lacking faith in God.

At that time I had zero passion for databases, yet my zeal to do what I wanted drove me as far as passing four out of five rigorous certification exams, all without ever touching a real database. My death march of momentum seemed to indicate that I could accomplish anything by the strength of my amazing will-power. It wasnt until I failed the final database exam twice that God finally got through to me. Finally, I threw up my hands in exhausted surrender. Though I was determined to destroy myself, God stepped in to pull the rug out from my futile rebelliousness.

By Gods grace I gave up. Giving up is a good thing when our goals are blatantly disobedient to God. Following through with our godless endeavors after we know theyre godless is like pulling the trigger just for the sake of finishing this one last round of Russian roulette.