All Bad Things Come to an End
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This Sunday we spend a little time thinking about the end of the world. Our Scripture readings say that in the end times, there will be wars and insurrections, natural disasters, and persecutions. It could sound a little too familiar, as we’re watching some of that transpire around us now. Things have been pretty bad for a while, and although I don’t think the world is ending, I do wish the terrible things happening in the world would end.
I don’t think the world’s end is at hand, but something that troubles me lately is a general sense of distress, dismay, malaise, and discouragement I notice in people, even young people. We’ve been carrying so much over these past few years, and it seems like people are just done. I was thinking about this as I was listening to music recently. This could have been the head space I was in — you know how when you’re feeling a certain way so you tend to hear the things that resonate with your state of mind. I heard a song by AJR that came out around the time of the pandemic called “Way Less Sad.” “No I ain’t happy yet, but I’m way less sad.” I hear sadness, lethargy, and despondency. There’s another song called “Quitting (The Way I Wrote It)” by Ian McConnell which says “I've been thinking 'bout quitting/I don’t think I’m gonna do it . . . I used to love this, now I love this less/And I’ve had trouble filling up my chest/With the air I need to live because I’m anxious and I’m stressed/Beyond my limits.” I did a Google search for songs like this, and, wow, that was depressing. On the other hand, maybe there’s something comforting about quitting (or fantasizing about quitting) the things that are hard or painful, and maybe it’s not unlike thinking about the end of the world. Things in the world are terrible, so let’s just let it burn. I don’t like feeling like that, though.
As it turns out, the end time Scripture readings are not about listlessness or despair or quitting. In fact, they’re meant to be a source of hope. Scripture passages about the end times were written to comfort people who were being persecuted. They were meant to show that God is present, even in suffering. They reassure people that persecution will eventually end and that God will always care for God’s own people. They’re actually designed to help people to not quit but to stay and persevere until the hard time is over. So, even though the readings describe catastrophic events and show the world just burning, they also show how God is close to all who suffer. I do take comfort from that.
What Scripture never says is that suffering in life will stop or that faith will help us to avoid suffering. In fact, throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, we’re told that life consistently brings suffering. Our faith teaches us how to deal with suffering — we persevere in prayer, we turn to each other, and we trust God. We know that there is always redemption in suffering, that after suffering comes resurrection, that there is a movement in each of our lives of dying and rising, and that God is deeply present in that movement.
In the face of suffering, we will feel sadness, languishing, anger, confusion, anger, grief, distress, fear, and anxiety. That’s normal. It probably does help to sing about it. It helps me. Singing and just listening to sad songs gives me something to do when I’m hurting, and when I do that, I acknowledge that suffering is part of life — everyone’s life. Music often turns into a prayer, and those angsty feelings are an invitation to turn to God for help. There’s also an invitation to turn to each other; that’s what community is for. We share our suffering and we hold space for each other’s sorrow and distress. We comfort each other, and as we do, we allow God to comfort us all.
I also find hope in the idea that hard times will come to an end. Nothing is permanent. I wish all the good things would last forever, but one positive aspect of change is that it also brings hard things to a close. Sometimes it can be helpful to look back over past difficulties and remember how I got through them and how God was there with me. At a certain point in life, we have enough perspective to know that we can persevere through difficulties and that God will bring some kind of redemption or growth or goodness out of whatever we just went through. I’m not saying that God erases all traces of suffering, because some losses never leave us. Even Jesus still wore scars on his resurrected body. However, God is deeply with us even as we move through the worst kind of suffering, and resurrection does bring hope with it.
God is with us however we are — when we feel like quitting or when we persevere, when we feel happy or just way less sad. If the world is ending, God is in that, and if it’s not but it just feels pretty desolate, God’s with us in that too. However we find ourselves these days, I hope we can turn toward God in love and trust. Take good care, everyone.
For reflection:
How do you find yourself these days? If you were to make a playlist of songs that reflect your current thoughts and feelings, what songs would you put on there? And why?
Is there anything going on in the world that you wish would end or something that you just wish was different? What is it, and why do you wish it was different? Is there a call for you in that desire?
Maybe you could spend a few quiet moments talking to God about all of this and see what God has to say.
By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP
Leslie is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, hosts the Providence Podcast, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She enjoys music, dancing, and sad songs that make you cry. :)