Have you ever seen a sign or a logo you did not understand at first? The first time I saw a shirt with TAP OUT on it I wondered what it meant. I had nothing in my database that helped me relate to it. Then one day I saw men fighting until one of them surrendered to his opponent. I heard the announcer say, “ He TAPPED OUT!”
I maintained my curiosity about this cult expression, and I have often seen the expression on ball caps, shirts, and stenciled pick up truck windows. What is even more interesting is that another generation used the same expression when they ran out of money. So I guess you could say in both cases, resources had been exhausted.
I was thinking about those in the scripture who ran out of resources. Stories of men and women from various walks of life, those who refused to TAP OUT and others who just TAPPED OUT. The first that comes to mind is Moses. At first he tapped out, but then he made a memorable come back; and, as a result, we have Israel’s story of the Exodus. Abraham never tapped out, but it was because he never lost faith. Abraham did not even stagger! He had seen a Heavenly City, and because of that, he was able to live in a tent. So many are remembered because they either refused to TAP OUT or they began to depend on their own strength and resource and ended up Tapping Out. There is the story of Jacob wrestling well into the night with an angel at a place that was a portal of heaven. He refused to loose his hold on the heavenly unless He was given a blessing. And, blessed he was with a limp, but he did not TAP OUT. In the Psalms we have this account: Psalms 78:9 and 41, “The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle....Yea, they turned back in the day limited the Holy One of Israel.”
The heroes of faith refused to tap out, but we do read about some in the New Testament who did TAP OUT. For instance John 6:66, “Some turned back and walked no more with Him.” There were also men like Demas who loved the present world, as well as many more.
But today is Palm Sunday, and the most amazing thing about it is that Jesus refused to TAP OUT at the whipping post, on the Villa del a Rosa (the Way of the Cross), or even at Calvary. He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, knowing full well that His hour had come. So today, as we present the Gospel of Tenacity to you on this Palm Sunday, “Consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners lest you be weary and faint in your mind”.
We believe in you!
Cleddie and GayNell Keith