The Rest Of The Story
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:18-20
Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” John 18:1-4
When I was a child, I would listen to news radio with my Dad and Uncle. During these times, I would hear a voice that I would grow to appreciate until he passed away in 2009. His name was Paul Harvey, and he had several famous radio broadcasts. The one that grew on me more than any other was called The Rest Of The Story. It involved the story behind an individual or event that often made it all possible. Paul spoke with this wonderful grandfatherly strong voice, and one could imagine kids gathering around him to listen as he narrated the story. For example, he would tell of a young kid named Jeffrey who would be cut from his Junior Varsity Basketball team, and with his gift for storytelling, meticulously give all the pertinent details of what happened that day. Then near the end, he would talk about how this kid overcame that disappointment to become this great star. And then near the end, he shared with the audience the kid named Jeffrey was in fact … Michael Jeffrey Jordan (his full name), and then end the broadcast with the tag line, “And now you know … the rest of the story.” It harkened me in my years to wonder what my story would sound like. It is one that has not been finished.
However, someone already knows the end of this story, and that is God. I struggle with this concept because I do not know what I am going to do the next day let alone how my story will end. We like to believe we know the ending to our story, but we simply do not. If we truly understand this though, we might ask, “Why bother even making the effort? The answer is simple. All because God knows the ending of our story does not mean we are to mail it in. In fact, our story is predicated on our efforts. Remember, it is not our job to be God. It is our job to do His will for our life. It is then that God reveals what our story looks like.
We must trust the story God has written for us. As we read in the first set of verses, John the Evangelist focuses on our acting on God’s prompting and not just meditating on it. It says that even if we feel like we came up short, He knows our intent because He knows everything. Thus, we can go forward with confidence knowing that whatever we see as the outcome, God has the full story, and that story is for good. Thus, John is telling us that He knows what is in our hearts, and that is good enough. But why should we have confidence standing before God? Can we know for sure God is ‘ok’ with us?
That is where the second set of verses of Jesus’s betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane comes into play. We understand that Jesus is God. Knowing this, we understand this whole sequence as neither Judas getting the best of Jesus nor Jesus being caught. It was merely His saying it is time. “Whom are you seeking,” was a ‘trap’ question. Judas and the troops were seeking to capture Jesus, but Jesus’s question was, “Have you come for a savior?” If Judas was thinking it through, he might have said to himself, “Jesus knows we were looking for Him and we have him surrounded. Why would He calmly ask this … unless He already knew this would happen? Oh snap!” It’s like that moment in Star Wars when Lando Calrissian, who was leading a surprise attack, says “How can they be jamming (our signal) if they don’t know … that we’re coming?” When we think we are surprising someone, but the other side knows it, nothing good happens for us. Thankfully, we are on the side of Christ, and humbly, we are grateful that He did what He did for all of our sins; past, present, and future. Why? Because He knows the story from beginning to end!
We must focus less on our own concerns and more on doing those things God asks of us. It is not about us figuring out the ending of our story. It is about as John said our living out God’s word in truth by our actions. So, do not worry about what is happening in each chapter of our life. Do what God places in your heart and watch how He amazes us in revealing each page our story. Where can we be less anxious about God’s plan for us and more focused on doing God’s will for us? My prayer is we push on as faithful servants of God because He always knows … the rest of the story. Amen.