Better is the end

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

It is well to keep in mind, when we are tempted to either discouragement over our own lot or covetousness over the happy lot of the godless, that "better is the end of a thing than its beginning." That is, what matters is the final outcome, not this particular snapshot in time. If only we could get this straight, could we not better endure the messy middles of life?

The Psalmist got bogged down in messy middles. It's easy for us to be unsympathetic: "Hey, Asaph, trust in God and cheer up! The bad guys you envied are all pushing daisies now." But that's the point, isn't it---that you and I see Asaph's end from the beginning, knocking off his whole life in one sitting with Psalm 73. What we don't visualize so conscientiously is our own ending. Are we just lazy? Asaph finally came around to wholesome thinking after 15 verses of slogging in the slough of despond:

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a weariness task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discovered their end (Psalm 73:17).

During my youth, Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson were all the rage in the academic world for their hands-on research into America's sexual habits. I just learned in Newsweek the final chapter: "We see the thrice-divorced Johnson cursing her former partner from the confines of a nursing home. . . ." As for Masters, he admitted, "I haven't the vaguest idea . . . what love is."

I wish we had a sci-fi time machine we could step into that would show us the end of our lives if we keep following Christ and don't give up. But I think God just wants us to employ our imaginations.

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