Readers and movie goers like conclusive endings. The enemy gets shot. The central character lives happily ever after. The story strings all come together in the end. A neat bow is tied. The reader closes the book with a happy sigh. Their beloved character is avenged and safe.
In real life, loose ends abound. Prisoners falsely accused languish in prison. Justice systems set the guilty free. Dictators flourish. Innocence is quashed. We long for God to swoop in, gather history’s loose ends and tie them in a neat bow – in our time. Sometimes He does. But, more often than not, we have to live with loose ends.
Eugene Peterson writes, “It takes maturity to live with the loose-endedness of life. But if we refuse to live with it, we exclude something that may very well be essential and dear: the hazards of faith, the mysteries of God.
Scriptures teaches us to commit our way, our stories, our lives, to God. That means leaving the dangling strings tied to His fingers. Completion is a God word. Only He can provide it.
Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)
What strings dangle in your life? Are you obsessed with a neat and predictable ending to life’s troubles? Today, tie your loose ends around God’s fingers, allow Him to gather and tie them, in His time.
He has set a time when all your loose ends will be gathered. Commit the dangling strings to Him.
Lord, how badly I need you to make me content with the unfinished business of my life. Today, I tie the loose ends of my life around your creative fingers. Do what pleases You. In the interim, I remain your humble servant.
***
Rose McCormick Brandon is the author of Promises of Home - Stories
of Canada's British Home Children, One Good Word Makes all the Difference, numerous magazine articles and personal stories for compilations like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Rose writes two blogs, Promises of Home and Listening to my Hair Grow. Contact her at: rosembrandon@yahoo.ca
of Canada's British Home Children, One Good Word Makes all the Difference, numerous magazine articles and personal stories for compilations like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Rose writes two blogs, Promises of Home and Listening to my Hair Grow. Contact her at: rosembrandon@yahoo.ca 
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1 comment:
I really appreciate this post, Rose. It certainly speaks to our human condition and the prevalence of injustice and evil in the world, as well as our innate hope for resolution to them. Eugene Petersen's statement is at once insightful and illuminating. Well done. ~~+~~
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