Casandra Martin

The worry wraps around my heart like a cord, strangling my peace and suffocating my joy. This darkness squeezes my soul tight. Fear sneaks in, causing me to waver. I tell myself to breathe. This season will pass. The heaviness that presses in, making the way seem muddled and unsure, will lift eventually. Right? I hope so. I desperately want to hope so.

Struggles do more than wrench our peace. They can change the way we see. The mountains look more daunting, the valleys have more shadows, and the path seems to twist dangerously close to the edge. What came easily before requires more effort and energy than our hurting hearts can manage. Our lives spin upside down, causing us to lose our balance and our sense of being able to move forward.

On days like this, I need to remember a perspective-changing truth. Billy Graham put it this way. “I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.” Here is truth that my heart aches to hear. We know the end of the story. This difficult chapter is just that – a piece of the story. But it isn’t the final word. God has already revealed the ending. It finishes with an enemy defeated, a Lamb enveloped in glory, and a heaven filled with Christians who held His hand till the end.

My Jesus Resolution today is to remember the end of the story. What happens today is a page in my story. In every story, there is conflict, struggle, and heartache. The beauty of the story is found in the way that those difficulties help move the character toward the final purpose of the author. This chapter may be filled with tears, but the end of the story is pure joy.