Recently I spent time with a person who kept referring to getting “the short end of the stick”. Everything from, how the company he worked for had treated him, to the ways things had gone for him in the past, to his present “lot in life” had seemingly conspired against his happiness. This was a man who actually had incredibly good things throughout his life but the weight of the losses he had experienced were perceived to tip the scales of life to downtrodden victimhood.
As I pondered this and prayed for him, it became clear that everyone who walks the face of this Earth “gets the short end of the stick”. No matter how good someone is at reframing so as to see the positives of their life, or how good they are at becoming ultra successful in some way, there remains this gnawing sense of disappointment with what life hasn’t given them. It simply isn’t all that they’d hoped for or expected.
This manifests in such things as relationships that haven’t gone as imagined, unrealized dreams, “the state of the world” as they see it, and the myriad of things seemingly beyond their control.
It’s felt acutely by many from among the oppressed poor to the ultra rich, both male and female, those that are in and those that are out, the educated and the ignorant, everyone.
Finally, and please forgive the pun, then there’s the ultimate short end of the stick, when one’s life comes crashing to its inevitable end. Always too soon, with the ultimate tragedy of leaving loved ones and what could have been, all behind.
No one escapes!
Or, on second thought, is there a Way of escaping these realities? A Way out of this hopeless state and into the never ending alternative state of having “the long end of the stick”.
The Way is actually Someone who not only told us the way but actually called Himself, “the Way”, as John recorded in the parting discourse in chapters 14-16 of his gospel (which actually means hope). This One, Jesus, was speaking there as He was about to offer up His life to make the Way, for all time and for everyone, for anyone who so desires, to live the life of “the long end of the stick”. A life that is lived together with Him, the only One who is able to deliver that kind of life, now and forever.
From the very start of that discourse where Jesus tells us that He is the Way, to explaining how the Way would be possible in the world of the short end of the stick, He concludes with the ultimate declaration:
“In the world (of the short end of the stick) you will most assuredly experience the troubles of that reality, but be of the most profound kind of cheer (for I have made a way for you to experience the long end of the stick) because I have overcome this present (hopeless) reality.”
A paraphrase from the Gospel of the Kingdom as told by His closest follower, John 16:33
The reality of Heaven coming to earth is what Jesus the Anointed One brought then, and it’s what He brings now, to everyone no matter what their station in life is.
This is the sure and abiding shalom (the state of peace-filled well being) that all people were created for and restored to us through His love soaked sacrifice. He Himself is this Shalom and He longs for us to long for Him.
He is the Long End of the Stick and He is extending it out to all who want to grab hold of it and join with Him in living out life to the full! Take hold of it/Him and see for yourself as many have done over the centuries such as Clement of Alexandria who came from the hopeless paganism of the 2nd century to walking with Jesus in His Kingdom proclaimed, “The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrises.” It was Jesus’ grace (God’s activity- His Kingdom- in our lives to do for us what we cannot do ourselves) that turned the life of a vile slave trader, John Newton, into a life that then over many years experienced the long end of the stick to the point where he wrote a song expressing it. This “amazing” song has went on to become arguably the most famous of all time.
Try Him and see that He is Good! (Psalm 34:8)
Good insights John. As Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” But, as believers who are daily abiding in Him, we are not apart from Him. As Paul tells us, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” If we will receive His strength, we can have our outlook, and our lives, changed into a long-stick experience. But if we try to tough it out in own own strength, then we’re doomed to experience short-stick-ness. Question: how do you most frequently receive God’s strength in your life?