Alpha and Omega

I'm in a little bit of "deep water" right now. Whether due to miscommunication or misunderstanding, I'll have to wait several weeks before obtaining an Illinois provisional teaching certificate. (I was told it could be up to eight weeks.) What that means for me is that until I receive it, I'll be working only a "substitute" for decreased pay and no benefits. But just when I find it easy to freak out in anxiety and forget my Father, I need to remember a "bumper sticker" from my friend Jenn's Facebook profile:


(Sorry it's kind of small.) I don't know if this is some sort of kitsch slogan, but either way I believe these are sound words to live by. When we live by Jesus' words, that he is the Alpha and the Omega, we have to acknowledge that no matter how big are our problems or how perilous our evils, it is God who got not only the first word, but also the last. The reality of every evil, difficulty, and anxiety is encompassed by even greater God-reality. He conquers over all our woes, and he will bring all those who trust in his Son with him to outlive them all in the end. We won't live bump-free lives, but we know that the bumps aren't the whole story; God, our loving and supremely powerful Father, is. Even now he weathers storms with us and carries us through, and in hope he will bring us home in the end.

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God?"
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
(Isaiah 40:27-28)