The Apostle Paul was the Original Energizer Bunny

The Apostle Paul was the Original Energizer Bunny
I had a professor in Bible college tell me that the Apostle Paul was the original Energizer Bunny. Maybe you remember those old battery commercials where a mechanical pink bunny would zoom across the screen beating a bass drum and it’d keep on going, not stopping for anything. The implication was it was using the power of Energizer batteries, which were long lasting. My professor’s implication about the Apostle Paul was that nothing stopped him; things like lashes, being beaten, stoned with rocks,  shipwrecked, robbers, sleepless nights, hunger and thirst and in cold and exposure… You get the picture. I get it. The guy didn’t give up; he kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. But I’m not him, nor the Energizer Bunny. I become fatigued. I want to quit. I want to not have to face hard things. The thing of it is    is that this life is tough, and sometimes we need to face it head-on and keep doing good no matter the cost. As my dad would tell me when I was a callow boy, “Son, sometimes you just need to keep on keepin’ on.”
Woman with her head down on table
“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.” ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:9 MSG‬
I gotta be frank with you all. Fatigue gets me sometimes. It hits me hard, and I want to quit. This is difficult for me because I’ve been working with my therapist about why I run myself ragged, to where I became burned out and had three heart attacks. I found out that there’s this push in me to not be a quitter. The reason for this is many, but one thing is for sure is that when I was a young boy, I had someone tell me I give up too easy and that I’m a quitter. What I didn’t know at the time is that quitting some things is okay, but that most things, like not giving up on doing good is something you don’t want to quit doing. I’m just telling you all this because sometimes you need to stop doing things harmful to you, but never give up doing things that are good and noble and loving and true.
 
“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.”
 — ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:9 MSG‬
 
(Btw, I say “frank” because if I say “honest” then that means I’m lying, which I’ve been known to do now and then)
About Joe Puentes
Joe is a follower of Jesus, ragamuffin, sojourner, writer, speaker, entrepreneur, husband, dad and heart attack survivor. He is also a former pastor of twenty years. Joe is working on a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. You can read more about the author here.

Browse Our Archives