Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Plato

Jack was just a teen when working for an older couple on a farm in Colorado. They were caught in a sudden snowstorm while driving home one day and were stranded on a lonely country road. It fell to Jack to walk the two miles to the house in order to get the tractor so that he could come back for the elderly pair.

I heard Jack tell of this walk through the blizzard many years later. He said that as he walked he would slip and fall into the ditch. After a while, he was nearing the point of exhaustion and was tempted to just lie there and go to sleep. He knew, though, that if he were to do so, he would die. More importantly, there were two people who were counting on him to come back. So he got up and did what was needed.

That's the way life is, when you think about it. There are times that we are just worn out and ready to give up. At such times it is very tempting to do just that, but if we ever do give up in our service to God we will be lost. And, whether we realize it or not, it is quite likely that there will be others who do not make it as a result of our failure.

Is someone counting on you? Maybe it's your spouse or children. Maybe it's a close friend, or maybe it's someone that you haven't even met yet, but there are people who are counting on you. It is a sobering thought, but it is very likely that we are someone's best chance for coming closer to God and we cannot, we must not, let them down. Who is counting on you?

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward the slaughter. If you say, "but we knew nothing about this", does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? 

Proverbs 24:11-12, NIV

I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me... (Jesus) 

John 14:2-3, NIV