End of the Road

What a sad, despairing idiom, I used to think whenever I heard it from my American friends (budding stage actors) after an abysmal audition for a role. "End of the road for me." I felt their pain and frustration. It was as though their career had come into a screeching halt. 

I had forgotten all about this idiom when I returned to the Philippines, because I don’t hear this (translation: wala nang pag-asa) at all.  Filipinos are generally optimistic, as reported in annual polls. Despite  difficulties, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) read, “Forty-five percent of adult Filipinos believe their quality of life will improve in the year ahead . . . resulting in a net personal optimism score of ‘excellent’ . . .” 

Son #3, who went to Tuguegarao for a few days, inadvertently reminded me of this idiom when he sent us this photo and wrote, “End of the road [literally!]. Beyond it is the sea.”

Surprisingly, the idiom made me glad, not sad. 

As I prepare for the women’s Sunday school in church, which I help facilitate, I pore over the Bible with excitement, because it repeatedly assures me that the road never ends for someone who believes in the saving grace of Jesus.  

Isaiah 43:13 (NLT) reads, “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”

Jesus says in John 5:24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life!” 

Failures are not the end of the road, as many still insist. And hope goes way beyond optimism (pag-asa) for a better life on earth. 

“ . . . we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:18)

To those who put their faith in Jesus, there is no such thing—not even earthly death—as end of the road.