Today Isn’t the End of the Story

When I was 37 years old, my husband died suddenly, and I had to take over parenting our two teenage boys and pastoring our church. At first, I felt overwhelmed and alone, wondering how in the world I could do it. The future didn’t look anything like I expected, and it didn’t look bright.

Maybe you feel like that today. With bad news swirling all around us these days, it’s easy to be anxious about the future. But I promise – today isn’t the end of the story. In Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG) God tells us: I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised…I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.  

Wow – read that again! It’s so encouraging! 

In those dark days, reading about Paul always helped me. When life looks hard or hopeless to you, read about Paul.

I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. And that’s not the half of it when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

—2 CORINTHIANS 11:23–29, THE MESSAGE

I have been through a lot, but I’ve never been through anything like that. Have you? Yet Paul kept going, and we’re still influenced by his ministry today! There’s always more to the story with God.