I hate the middle of a good book.

Don’t get me wrong, I love good books. I think one of the greatest satisfactions in life is to settle down with a good book on a rainy evening. The beginning of a good book always offers intrigue and excitement. You are quickly meeting new characters, immersing yourself in a different time and place. You get a glimpse of the hero’s hopes and dreams. You can’t wait to see where the story goes. For a while, in most stories, things seem pretty good, but then somewhere near the middle of the story, things go wrong. The mother dies or the bank forecloses. Sickness sets in or the relationship crumbles. Things break down and for a while, and it’s hard to imagine any way this story could have a happy ending. If you stopped reading the book at this point, you would live in constant depression and frustration. But we keep reading, because we hope things will somehow find a way to turn around.

Your life is a story, and you are probably somewhere in the middle of it. We all face days, weeks, or even months when things go wrong. People we love die. Jobs end. Our health fails. In those dark times, it’s hard to imagine that our story could have any sort of good ending. It’s hard to imagine that things could work out or even that we’ll survive. It’s during these dark moments that we begin to wonder if we have failed or somehow let God down.

This is when the words of an early church planter named Paul mean so much for Christians. Paul wrote in a letter to the church in Rome that God takes everything that happens in our life and shapes them to lead to a good place. (Romans 8:28). Your story as a Christian has a good ending. You are a part of a story that is more amazing than you could ever have imagined. I know that the middle parts can be discouraging sometimes, but there is more to your story than what you are enduring today.  So hang in there, and keep living your story. Dark moments today can give way to incredible victories tomorrow.