What Next???

Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.  John 16:20

Watching the Frozen Four, I couldn't help but sit in my seat hoping for a miracle comeback. After an amazing start in the hockey tournament, my home-town hockey team was down by 2 with just minutes remaining. I watched as the clock continued to tick... and watched as what seemed to be an unstoppable force hit a brick wall.


Yet, I can only imagine this in some way was how Christ's followers felt watching Him on the cross. Here had been a man who seemed unstoppable, immutable. Yet, now He was being crucified at the hands of mere men. I am sure they must have been asking themselves, "What happened," while hoping for a "last second come-back."

And just like the hockey game, the clock continued to tick, and there was no miracle comeback. The journey was now over, the Messiah who had come to deliver them hung on the cross, dead. I can only imagine their thoughts as they walked back, wondering what was next... what to do with their lives now.

I think in some ways, we all end up in this train of thought. Something in our life takes a sudden turn... What started off so smoothly quickly turns for the worse, leaving us hanging onto the ledge for dear life. And we ask ourselves, "what happened?" Like the disciples, we feel lost and without hope.

But death wasn't the end of the story, as we now know. Instead, Christ would be resurrected from the grave (Luke 24:4-7); and what seemed to be the inevitable end, turned into the start of an even more amazing journey.

An old friend once told me, "while things may not always go as planned, they do." For even when we are shocked and unsure of the next step, God remains steady, unchanged, and immovable in His plans (Job 42:2). God knows what the future holds, and He brings us a future of hope (Jeremiah 29:11). A future, where when we look back, the moment of what appears to be failure, is a moment of overcoming the impossible, a moment to remember how great our God is (Luke 1:37).