It Won’t Always Be Like This

It Won’t Always Be like This

In times of challenge or discouragement I sometimes invite hope by reminding myself, “It won’t always be like this.” I won’t always struggle with health issues . . . or finances . . . or strained relationships . . . or lost opportunities. I won’t always feel sad or afraid or exhausted or overwhelmed or hurt.

Then I think of friends who I know must be telling themselves the same thing: the new mom with very little margin in her day, operating on minimal sleep; the too-young widow learning to live without her precious husband; the wife whose husband is not the man she thought she’d married; the smart-as-a-whip dynamo whose business is floundering; the parents of a child with a mysterious, debilitating illness; the father who aches for the return of his adrift and angry son . . .

But it won’t always be like this.

How do I know? Because Jesus Christ is risen. Because in his story life follows death like a hound on a scent. “For everything there is a season,” the writer of Ecclesiastes opined, “a time for every activity under heaven” (3:1). And times change.

The very words that encourage me in challenging times should resonate in the midst of blessing, too, making me deeply grateful for every good gift, because even the best ones are fleeting. A fiery sunset. An unexpected dinner with dear but distant friends. An old hymn sung afresh whose words burst bright and new. A good day of writing. A road trip for no reason. Kind words from a stranger. I drink these in because it won’t always be like this—and because remembering these joys deepens them.

If today is full of sorrow or fear or loneliness, take heart and hope: it won’t always be like this. And if it is filled with quiet joys, celebration, comfort, or tenderness, then rejoice and give thanks: it won’t always be like this. In either case God is good, and the day is his. And so are you.

Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God.

Ecclesiastes 3:15, MSG