God Doesn't Write Bad Endings

I have found myself reflecting on the past a lot this week.

It started with spring break and a trip I took with my family. Each day we remembered how a year ago, we were walking through a very different spring break as the world was closing down around us. We remembered the low hum of menace and the eerie silence of the following weeks. The past few days, I have been remembering events in our church’s story and the many relationships that have been built over the years. I have found myself texting and reaching out to people and just enjoying connecting with them, both around joy and in the midst of pain.

This week is Holy Week, the week we remember. We look back and walk through the last week of Jesus’ life. We worship on Palm Sunday, remembering the beginning of the week and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We celebrate the communion meal on Maundy Thursday, remembering Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples about serving one another, loving, remembering, promising. We sit in death and darkness on Good Friday, remembering the cost of our sins, the disruption in the lives of the disciples, the darkness of that day. And we remember on Easter that death was not the end of Jesus’ story, nor the stories of his followers, as the stone is rolled away and an empty tomb proclaims that Jesus is alive.

Remembering can sometimes be a one-way trip to the past, a landing spot, or a destination. And that isn’t always bad—sometimes it’s quite healthy. The remembering I’ve been doing this week hasn’t been a destination, but a stopping point on a journey. It has brought me back to myself, to others, to a God who loves and is in love with me. 

I am reminded that what happened 2,000 years ago matters to me today. 

I am reminded that I need to continue to love and serve well—my family, my Lord, my church, my neighbors. That I am never too good to wash your feet.

I am reminded I need communion with God and with others—to remember that Jesus fulfilled a promise from God to me and those in the room taking communion with me. 

I am reminded I need to remember that my sin, and your sin, and others’ sin is grievous and causes painful ripples, and I am reminded that on the cross Jesus paid the price “while we were still sinners.”

And I am reminded that the empty tomb means none of this is the end of the story.

Each day that I show up and invite God in—with all my junk, with all my pain, with all my hopes, fears, dreams, memories, desires—matters. He will meet me. He knows me. And has known me. And knows you. And has known you. And he doesn’t write bad endings. And what we are seeing and remembering is just a taste of what’s to come.

Join me this week as we walk through it all. And come face to face with the God who remembers you, knows you, and has done everything to get you back.

I hope your memory will serve you well this week and help you continue to move forward in to hope. I’ll be there with you.

O.J. Aldrich is the Lake Mary Campus Pastor at Summit Church. He has an awesome wife, three amazing kids, and can typically be found with them at Fun Spot or shooting baskets in their driveway.