The Last Word

Is it just me, or does it happen to you as well?  You make a decision, you pronounce a truth, you set a course, and soon it is challenged by life events.

“I am not buying any more shoes.”  Then the pair you just “have to have” appear on the sale rack of the local store.

“We are not using electronic devices for a week.”  But the pressure from family members and within yourself becomes so intense you decide that was a rash decision and you have to look at your Facebook page.

“I am going to take all of my vacation days this year.”  But then you start to look at the calendar and the demands on our schedule and you can’t imagine how that would be possible.

              

Sometimes it is something much more profound.  Last week on Easter Sunday I proclaimed to our congregation that “…life has a way of throwing things at us that dominate our lives, but God always has the last word.”

              

Today I have things on my plate that dominate my life and make God’s last word harder to hear.  Today I am having what one author calls a “…terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

              

Last night I received an email from the young adult son of a congregant describing his father’s battle with cancer as having hit “rock bottom.”  The gist of the news was that the only possible turn around for his father was a miracle from God.  I went into an immediate funk, not that I don’t believe God could do a miracle and not that I wouldn’t pray for a miracle, but the news was depressing.

              

This morning I received word that a pastor friend from Michigan is in the last stages of his battle against cancer.  He, too, has a young family.

              

“…life has a way of throwing things at us that dominate our lives, but God always has the last word.”  My words from last Sunday were being put to the test. 

As I write this morning (Thursday), I believe in my heart and my head that God always has the last word.  But it is some of the words before that final word that weigh me down.  Today Jesus’ wrestling in Gesthemane, and his suffering on the cross with a sense of abandonment and questioning, will dominate my life more than the light of the resurrection.  Jesus lived with some heavy, dark clouds of suffering, anguish and questioning even though he knew full well the ultimate outcome.  I will live there a while myself, knowing full well that at some point God will bring me to a resurrection moment.

There are lots of words in my life right now that are creating dark clouds, God will have the last word.