It Ain't Over Til It's Over

Jeremiah 18 contains an amazing story where God uses a graphic illustration to drive a poignant point into the life of Jeremiah, and in turn, to those of us in the 21st Century. I want to encourage you to read Jeremiah 18:1-11.

I have recently been re-visiting the Ken Burns PBS series called Baseball. While watching this history of the game during the 50's, I was reminded of many of the great statements made by the New York Yankees player, Yogi Berra. Berra had a way of making statements that seemed completely illogical, and yet were full of logic. Like when he said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Or when he said, “A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.” He also said, “The future ain't what it used to be.” One time when sitting down at the table he said, “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” Another time he gave this sage advice, “Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”

Probably the most famous Yogism is "It ain't over 'til it's over." No matter how things are in your life right now, Yogi would say, "It ain't over yet. And it won't be over until it's over."

I think of that when I read the story of the potter in Jeremiah 18. A mistake we often make is that we think that the way things are today is the way things always will be. The economy will always be this good, or this bad. Business will always be this good, or this bad. This relationship will always be this good or this bad. But I have discovered that few situations, are permanent. There is an ebb and flow to life. The tide comes in and the tide goes out.

The message the passage reiterates over and over is this: It ain't over till it's over. This week, we are going to look at reasons why, no matter what you may be experiencing at the moment, you can be sure that it ain't over.