I Know How the Story Ends
We will be with Him again
There are few songs that make me well up with tears nearly every time, and one of those is “You’ve Already Won” by Shane & Shane.
They sing this line: I know how the story ends / we will be with you again. I listened to those words while driving into work this morning, and I knew I had to use those as inspiration for a blog. Those words are rich with meaning, are full of hope and promise, are thrilling to saints’ hearts.
We know how the story ends. All we go through in life—pain, sickness, death, diseases, car accidents, catastrophes, you name it—we know we will be with Him. In the end, there will be no more pain, no more tears, no more sin. No more freak accidents; no more surprise calls about a loved one’s death; no more funerals; no more persecution. That all ends. We know how the story ends because God has written it.
Jesus has already won. As we navigate life’s mountaintops and valleys, we must keep our gaze upon Jesus or else we will fall into despair and succumb to temptation. We can keep our head held high on the glory of God because, despite the world seemingly falling apart, we know how the story ends because we know the author of the story. Life doesn’t have to be scary; living day to day doesn’t have to give us anxiety. We know how the story ends; we will be with him again.
Of course, knowing how the story ends—being with the triune God in glory for eternity—doesn’t make the suffering of today hurt less. It doesn’t make battling sin daily any less arduous. But it makes all of that worth it. Knowing how the story end gives us supreme motivation to trudge through trials, to fight sin victoriously (via the Holy Spirit), to not despair when hardship befalls us.
“For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a world where dreams and adventures shrink,” Randy Alcorn wrote, “to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand.” This is what we look forward to; this is how the story ends for those who believe.
What is bogging you down, Christian? What is distressing you? I won’t pretend that we don’t all endure difficult days; I won’t pretend that we don’t have to handle affliction and suffering. But I do know that knowing the end of the story makes it bearable. Knowing our future glory makes our current suffering feel easy. Knowing the finale makes our aches and cries tolerable.
Though it may seem like evil is prevailing; though it feels like spiritual forces are winning, we know how the story ends. We know Jesus has already won through his life, death, and resurrection. We know the triune God is preparing for us a place. We know how the story ends, so until we get there, let’s focus on that.
Yes!!! Amen! Such love and mercy!!