Beautiful Ending

“Beautiful Ending” by BarlowGirl 


"Oh, tragedy,
Has taken so many.
Love lost 'cause they all
Forgot who You were.
And it scares me to think
That I would choose
My life over You.
Oh, my selfish heart
Divides me from You,
It tears us apart.


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?


Oh, why do I
Let myself let go
Of Hands that painted the stars
And hold tears that fall?
And the pride of my heart
Makes me forget
It's not me but You
Who makes the heart beat.
I'm lost without You
And dying from me


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?


Will my life
Find me by Your side?
Your love is beautiful,
So beautiful


At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?
Will my life
Find me by Your side?
'Cause Your love is beautiful,
So beautiful"

BarlowGirl's reason for writing this song goes along so well with what I’ve been reading lately, 2 Chronicles. This scenario seems to play out again and again—the leaders and kings of Judah seem to be so on track with following the Lord, He has blessed them with great ministries… but then, something happens and they turn away. They become distracted. Something else seems to become greater than God. Here is the story that sticks out to me the most right now.

King Asa’s Story:

Chapters 14 to 16 of Second Chronicles talk about King Asa’s reign in Judah. 2 Chronicles 14:2 says, “And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” He “commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment” (14:4).

King of Judah, Asa, and his army of 300,000 men are about to fight the Ethiopians’ army of a million men (14:9). “And Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you" (14:11). And the Lord gave victory to Judah.

“And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around (15:15). King Asa must have hated sin and idolatry because he destroyed an idolatrous image that his own mother had (15:16). 2 Chronicles 15:17 says “The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.” For the first 35 years of his ruling as King of Judah, Asa had followed the Lord.

The 36^th year is where Asa falls into trouble. “But in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel attacked. He started it by building a fort at Ramah and closing the border between Israel and Judah to keep Asa king of Judah from leaving or entering” (16:1 [The Message]). Instead of crying out to the Lord for help, he took matters into his own hands. He sent gold and silver from The Temple of God to send to Ben-hadad, king of Syria to make a treaty with him.

2 Chronicles 16:7-9 of The Message says, "Just after that, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, "Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn't ask God for help, you've lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram. Didn't the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and he gave you the victory. God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God's help. Now you're in trouble—one round of war after another."" King Asa had forgotten what the Lord had done for him in the past. He had forgotten how the Lord had delivered him.

And what was Asa’s response to this rebuke? Asa’s heart hardened toward the Lord. He threw the seer in prison and was cruel to some of the people (16:10). In the 39^th year of his reign, King Asa got a terrible foot disease. “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians” (16:12). King Asa, who had started out following the Lord so strongly in the beginning, lost sight of who God is, how BIG He is, how He alone is able to SAVE.

How easily I can forget who God is and how much He loves me. How easily my focus shifts from the Lord and onto myself.

How essential it is to trust in God’s character and His promises. God's character doesn't change with our circumstances. No matter what I am facing or how I am feeling, His love remains.


"Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not." -- C.S. Lewis


Romans 8:37-39: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."