Billy Graham was once asked in an interview, “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?” Graham responded quickly, “I’m an optimist.” The reporter pursued: “Why is that?” Graham answered, “I’ve read the last page of the Bible!”
One of the verses I carried in my heart as I went to the hospital for chemotherapy last year was Romans 14:8.
“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” I thought of it as:
Live OR Die. One of my sisters gave me a book based on the same verse. It is called “Either Way I Win!” That verse has guided me over the years in a number of Live OR Die situations.
It’s not hard to be an optimist when you know the end of the story is secure, when you know you’re in for an adventure either in the here and now or eternity. Do I have questions? For sure! Do I sometimes want to know more of the details? Absolutely. Do anxious thoughts sometimes cross my mind? without a doubt. Does it matter in the end? No, because I know how the story ends. And while it still plays out, I know something else:
NOTHING CAN STOP GOD FROM LOVING US.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
That’s why I am an eternal optimist. How about you?
