I cannot say that I am highly skilled at many things, but I am nearly an expert at worst-case-scenario thinking. The Venn Diagram between my propensity to anxiety, my creativity, and my highly reactive amygdala overlap to create a strong petri dish for catastrophic thinking. The news (which I try to limit) most assuredly doesn’t help this strong tendency within me. I’ve tried all kinds of tricks and tips (best, worst, most likely; 5 other potential outcomes), but filling my mind with Scripture by study and meditation are the only two pathways that consistently lead me out of the deep grooves of my grave thinking.

In the past few weeks, the Lord has used a passage of Scripture (Luke 21) and a passage of fiction (The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis) to remind me to let my worst case scenario thinking lead me all the way to the very best possible scenario.

When the Worst Seems to Happen, Straighten Up and Raise Your Head

I don’t naturally find myself wanting to study Luke 21, which reads like Jesus preparing his disciples for worst case scenarios during his last days before the cross. In Luke 21:5-9, Jesus prepares the disciples for the coming destruction of the Temple. In Luke 21:10–19, the bad news continues as Jesus prepares his disciples for wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, terrors, and persecution. Then, in Luke 21:20–24, Jesus continues by preparing them for the destruction of Jerusalem. All this, on the days leading up to the Passover which was a celebratory and central feast in the Jewish calendar. Talk about a downer. I wonder how the disciples received Jesus’s heaping of coming hard things. I imagine that, at the time, much of it was lost on them (as was the pattern in their relationship with Jesus).

Here’s the thing though: the thrust of this chapter which contains so many would-be worst case scenarios is actually hope and courage. Scattered throughout the dark backdrop, Jesus sets bright lights of hopeful truth. In the context of the destruction of the Temple, he adds, “Do not be terrified, for these things must take place, but the end will not be at once” (Luke 21:9). In the context of the disciples being brought before kings and governors, Jesus says, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21: 13). In the context of being delivered up by friends and parents and brothers, some even to death, Jesus says “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21: 18–19). What seems to be a declaration of doom is actually intended to be a call to courageous faith.

I love Jesus’s summation after the section of the chapter describing the last days before Christ’s Second Coming: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). I had to read that verse four times because it was so unexpected.

Jesus tells his disciples that when they experience distress, perplexity, and people fainting with fear and with foreboding, they ought to straighten up and lift their heads. I don’t know about you, but, in those realities, my reflexive response would either be to drop into the fetal position in fear or to let my head drop in despair.

Jesus is communicating that these seemingly worst case scenarios are ushering them toward the best case scenario: being with Christ. The worst that could happen to them is death, and death, for the Christian, is the doorway to life eternal. Whatever the Lord allows to come our way will only usher closer to Christ both in nearness and in likeness. Thus, we can straighten up and raise our heads, even in worst case scenarios.

Death as the Doorway into Life

In the final book of the Narnia series, C.S. Lewis captures through fiction the sentiment that the Savior sought to communicate to his disciples in Luke 21. Outmanned and surrounded by their enemies, Tirian and the little band of the last Narnians kept getting pressed closer and closer to the dreaded stable at the center. When they finally enter the threshold they dreaded, they find the stable much bigger inside than outside. Though they died in battle, they find that they had each passed through a doorway into a much more spacious and beautiful place. Death was merely a doorway into a fuller life with full access to Aslan. All that they had loved about Narnia had only been hints at Aslan’s true country. Their shock and surprise gave way to delight. What they thought was the worst ushered them into the best. Good fiction can offer such fodder for faith.

It isn’t hard to imagine worst case scenarios these days. All one has to do is turn on the news or scroll through social media. Christians are called to the much harder work of following the worst case scenarios all the way to the doorway that leads to eternal life with Christ. The worst that could happen is death, and our Christ made death a doorway to his resurrection life. More of him forevermore awaits those who love and long for Christ’s appearing.