Like a woman cooking a large family meal, I have a pot on every burner right now. Front right is the woman who has given up on her husband. Back right is the child still going the wrong direction. Front left is the young woman who has given up on her family. Back left is the woman who sees no hope in herself. I keep a spoon of prayer stirring in each pot where someone teeters on the edge of writing someone off. According to the Free Dictionary by Farlex, the idiom "to write someone off" means:

• To give up on turning someone into something
• To give up on someone as a dead loss, waste of time, hopeless case, etc.

• First, we are worn out. We are to-the-bone weary with trying to understand or help or forgive. Fatigue causes us to throw up our hands in defeat.

• Second, we have no hope. Nothing changed last year. Nothing has changed this year. Why in the world should we expect anything to be better next year?

• Third, we have drifted from the gospel. We have forgotten that, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). We have forgotten that Christ pushed past his own weariness and pain and trudged on for the sake of love. We have forgotten that Christ held hope we could become whole and blameless.