December 21: We already know how this story ends...

Zecharaiah 1:1-21

Revelation 12:1-17

Psalm 140:1-13

Proverbs 30:17

I've never been one to do it, but it appears there are quite a few people who like to see how a story ends before reading the whole thing, the type who used to scan the VCR or DVD forward to the end of the movie without seeing all the main protagonists were going to have to endure to get there.  (OK, that's not entirely true - I couldn't get past the big family battle in Crazy, Stupid Love to finish the movie so I asked my daughter's friend how it ended).  Sometimes, I guess, we just want to know that it all works out- for all the suffering and trial and hardship we endure today, we want to know - we need to know - that it all turns out well in the end.

Which is why today's reading was so powerful  Today's reading is the answer for every single moment I've been overwhelmed by any of the challenges and situations I've faced, from childhood to my teenage years, from college to work, from dating to marriage to parenthood.  Today I am reminded that my worry is for naught.  The battle HAS been won - the movie has been shot, the book has been written...I just have to get all the way through to the ending, when all these concerns will be resolved to the good.  Everything I worry about - job and career, money - for the mortgage, for my children's college - health (my own, my family, my friends), my children's future - their careers, their relationships...ALL OF THIS has been written and finished,  ALL OF THESE BATTLES have been won.  Because long ago, "a woman clothed with the sun...was pregnant [and] gave birth to a male child who 'will rule all the nations with an iron scepter".  And because war broke out in heaven and the dragon and his angels were not strong enough, and was hurled to the earth.  And because "now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God.  And while the devil will continue to wage war on those who keep God's commands, well...we know how this is all going to turn out.  

As difficult as it is - and yes, it is very difficult sometimes - I have to learn to live the victory that has already been won.  I have to learn to stop carrying burdens God has already lifted off my shoulders, to live like David describes in today's psalm who, rather than going out and engaging the evildoers and the wicked himself, relinquishes the burden to God and asks for His protection, HIs deliverance.  We already know how this story ends...we just have to learn to live like it.