The End of the Story

             For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)

I’ve been putting off verses like this one in my “when the going gets rough” meditations because they have the ring of a “final word” on the subject. What more do we need to say. When the going gets rough, remember that Jesus wins. Part of that winning is that He gathers us to go with Him. Dead or alive, He wants us to be with Him, and death is no obstacle for Him. He wins, therefore we win. That’s how the story ends; nothing else matters; so what’s the problem between now and then? Except...anger, fear, pain, the flesh…life. The going gets rough. Maybe that “roughness” is half-inch seas to some – barely a ripple, but for others, it’s hard. Some things might be smooth sailing for the others, and rogue waves and tsunamis to some. For each of us, it’s different, but the response is the same: this thing, whatever it is for me, or for you, is rough.

This is why it’s wrong for Christians to start in with the “think how hard it is for _______” nonsense. The thing they are facing might be easy to the one being chided. What they are facing is tough for them. They need help with it – not to be belittled and tossed aside by someone who is supposed to love them.  

At the same time, we need the encouragement of the end of the story. We need to remember that in the end, He wins, therefore we win. We need to remember that even death is not failure.