Sunday Thought: It's Not Over

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us."

- Romans 8:18

I had every intention to write about 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 tonight ... I'm sure you've all heard it read at weddings and seen it printed on Hallmark cards. It's that famous chapter that begins with: "Love is patient and kind" and I planned to write about love tonight. But this morning I finished a novel I've been reading - it was so good, I read all 500 pages in four days! - and one of the characters in that novel is a soldier who, in the last chapter, is killed in action while fighting in Iraq. Then this evening I turned on my TV and, while flipping through channels, ended up coming across yet another documentary on the events of 9/11 ... and suddenly, I didn't feel inspired to write about love anymore. All I could think about was how it often feels like the whole world is crashing down around us and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed by the news and all the sadness in the world, I flip to Romans 8:18. And immediately I'm reminded that ... in the words of a dear friend of mine ... it ain't over 'til God says that it's over. Yes, this present time is tough. Yes, there's a war raging in the Middle East and there are children starving and dying of AIDS in Africa and there's chaos right here in North America as people struggle to deal with the financial crisis and medical experts warn of a pending deadly pandemic. But, despite all that - it's not over. And not only is it not over, but there's something amazing and beautiful and perfect that's on its way. Something so wonderful and holy, the bad stuff isn't even worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence! How awesome is that?! Some people call that being optimistic ... some people might call it being naive .... but I call it being faithful. God promises it, and I have faith that He'll make good on His promise.

And He'll make good on this promise because He loves us ... so I guess Romans 8:18 and 1 Corinthians 13 aren't so different from one another after all.

-xox-