Keep your fork — the best is yet to come

There is an old story told about a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had a short time to live. As she met with her pastor about her memorial service, she told him which songs she wanted sung, and what scriptures she would like read. As the meeting drew to a close, the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. “There’s one more thing,” she said excitedly. “What’s that?” came the Pastor’s reply. “This is very important,” the young woman continued. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The Pastor stood looking at the young woman, not knowing quite what to say, quite puzzled by the request. The young woman explained. “In all my years of attending church dinners as a chlld, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, ‘Keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming … like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.” So, she continued, “I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder “What’s with the fork?” Then I want you to tell them: “Keep your fork, the best is yet to come.”

The Apostle Paul said it this way, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) You might be in the pit of despair as you read this, but if you are in Christ Jesus, take confident hope and wait it out. Keep your fork! Better days are coming-the best is yet to come! You might be at the pinnacle of success this as you read this. You might be thinking, “it doesn’t get any better than this!” Don’t set your hope so low — your pinnacle is nothing compared to what awaits you if you are in Christ Jesus.

We live in a culture that feeds on complaint, cynicism and nit-picking. It’s our society’s favorite pastime on social media as long as we are not the ones being picked on — then we get upset and accuse others of bullying us! I have been a pastor many years and now am the president of Alaska Bible College and I have often wondered why so many blood-bought believers in Jesus are so negative and mean to people around them. It often doesn’t take long, and it seems to me especially for believers who have been saved for a longer time, for the conversation to move to how horrible our country is, how terrible our culture is and how whatever…negative, negative, negative. It is any wonder that the those who don’t believe are uninterested in the “joyful Christian life” when so many seem to be so joyless?

As I was thinking about what Paul wrote concerning our future glory, the reason why we fall into the trap of negativity and complaint dawned on me: We are expecting this temporary life we enjoy on earth to satisfy the eternal void within us that only our eternal God can fill in Christ. We forget that the best is yet to come! Rather than enjoying the temporary temporarily and waiting to enjoy the eternal eternally we would rather complain about the temporary because it’s not eternal!

The word “suffering” in Romans 8:18 comes from the Greek pathetos. We get our English word pathetic from it. It literally means to experience misfortune — that which is suffered or endured. If we expect our best life now we are going to have a lot of complaints, but for those whose trust in the Christ of Christmas and the Cross, the future is bright — better days are ahead. The freedom we have in Christ is forever and will make the pathetic junk we have to sometimes go through temporarily seem like nothing. We forget this sometimes or we just want to skip to the end of this life and enjoy that glory now. God has an awesome plan for our lives and it includes temporary suffering, but it concludes with eternal freedom by faith in Christ alone. In His infinite wisdom, embracing the temporary, temporarily, is His plan to get us ready to enjoy the eternal, eternally. So let’s keep our fork — the best is yet to come!

David Ley is president of Alaska Bible College in Palmer.