I grew up watching Godzilla.

Last May our Sylva Campus Pastor Josh LaVere and I led an International Ministry trip to Ghana, West Africa. We had an amazing time with a bunch of great people and were honored to be a part of what God is doing around the world. But that’s not the point of this story.

See on the last day of our trip we do our souvenir shopping at a local outdoor market and then stop by the mall in the capital city of Accra before heading to the airport. Don’t hate me ladies but as far as I’m concerned if you’ve seen one mall you’ve seen them all - even those in another country. This was my fourth trip so I’ve pretty much bought all the trinkets I need. There is however at the mall a pretty decent coffee house, ice cream shop and a movie theater with serious air conditioning. We had a couple of hours before we needed to leave so Pastor Josh and I decided to catch a movie - Godzilla.

We (I) did the math and we had more than enough time. Well it turns out we didn’t. They didn’t start the 30 minutes of previews until about 10 minutes after the show was scheduled to start. We hadn’t factored that into our plans. We were scheduled to meet the team and head for the airport so we had to walk out during the final battle scene. We knew that the end had to be close but we just couldn’t stay any longer. During the trip home we came up with several possible endings since neither of us knew what really happened.

Tonight I found out. I was finally able to watch the whole movie and it turns out there was literally 30 seconds left of the big fight. Another 5 minutes and the story wrapped and the credits played. I kid you not. We walked out with 30 seconds to go! It made me think of a favorite verse of mine -

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” - Galatians 6:9

Here’s the deal. I don’t know what you have been and are going through. I don’t know how long you have been at this and I don’t know how much longer is left in your big fight. But I do know two things with absolute certainty -

1. You have never been closer to breakthrough than you are right now at this very moment in this fight.
2. No matter how close you are to winning if you give up now you lose.

My advice? Hang in there, the finale God has in store for you is worth the wait.