give it up

"I Gave It All Up!"

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things
have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
--2 Corinthians 5:17

I have been asked more than once what I gave up when I was converted
and became a believing child of God. I was a young man, and I well
remember that I gave up the hot and smelly rubber factory. I was
making tires for an hourly wage, and I gave that up to follow
Christ's call into Christian ministry and service.

As a youth I was scared of life and I was scared of death--and I gave
that up. I was miserable and glum and unfulfilled--and I gave that
up. I had selfish earthly and material ambitions that I could never
have achieved--and I gave them up.

That forms the outline of the worthless things that I gave up. And
I soon discovered that in Jesus Christ, God had given me everything
that is worthwhile.

If God takes away from us the old, wrinkled, beat-up dollar bill we
have clutched so desperately, it is only because He wants to
exchange it for the whole Federal mint, the entire treasury! He is
saying to us, "I have in store for you all the resources of heaven.
Help yourself!"
Jesus, Author of our Faith, pp. 49-50