Titanic -The ship that could never sink.

Dewey defeats Truman.

Coach Frost turns Husker Football around immediately (ouch).

All of the above events should have happened – they were “done deals” if you will.

When I was younger, I was waiting for a certain job to open up. I had been waiting patiently for about 10 years. People who worked there waited patiently with me. My family waited. We were all excited for what would happen when I got this job. It was made for me. It finally happened. I had a great interview. Future coworkers and I made plans, and they asked me to let them know when I found out I got the job. It was a done deal.

Until it wasn’t.

I didn’t get the job.

Wait, what??? I thought it was a done deal. Everyone knew I would get it. God, didn’t you get that memo?

I grieved. It truly was a dream dashed, crushed, eliminated.

But, as God will do, he gradually, through the years, showed me how this wrecked “done deal” was for my good. I have dear, dear friends at my current job who love me. Friends who support, encourage, and challenge me to be my best. People who will cry with me, laugh with me, pray with me. I have had the privilege of being able to influence students God has put into my life. I have been able to share Jesus and pray with people who are hurting.

Won’t God just do it? Won’t He crush my “done deal” and sweetly draw me to His better deal? What a lovely, terrible, wonderful, devastating, delightful truth about our God! He always knows – HE ALWAYS KNOWS!

Let that sink in, friends. Look back at your empty done deals. God knew what He WAS doing and He knows what He IS doing. I think, at my core, I believe that. I don’t think, at my core, I always act like I believe it. But in his gentle way, God will remind me, as often as I need reminding, that this is true. It is, in fact, central to who God is.

But now let’s take all that, and let’s twist it on its ear. God is always with us when things that we think are certain don’t happen. But what about situations we know have no hope? Events that are a “done deal” in the negative sense?

That relationship that we know can never be reconciled.

The family member who we know will never turn to the Lord.

The child who has left and will not come home.

The marriage that is beyond hope of repair.

This morning I was reading about being brave. It struck me that God is greater than these “done deals” also. If He can turn crushed dreams into a new life, then He can restore what we believe is beyond hope. Jesus was dead, for heaven’s sake! What greater blow had the enemy ever dealt? But three days later, Jesus didn’t need that tomb anymore – it was just borrowed because He rose and defeated death! I believe He will do the same in our lives, our relationships, our families, our hearts. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul gives us this encouragement; “I am grateful that God always makes it possible for Christ to lead us to victory.”

That victory, my dear friends, is the true “done deal.”