Outcomes

I live in a world where outcomes determine everything.  Often I find individuals that believe that a result is the outcome.  Results are a part of the outcome but they are not the sum or the total.  Outcomes are the ultimate result.  Before outcomes are interim results, transactions, events, experiences, and steps.  Each marks part of the journey, they are important, but they never tell the whole story.
I listened to an interviewer questioning a sports icon about who was the “greatest” of all time.  It was interesting to listen to the respect and awe given to current players, yet the story could only be told, according to the icon, in the fullness of time.  It was only in history that one could see the true measure of an individual.  From my experience, this is an accurate assessment of life.  Individuals may to great things, accomplish tremendous goals.  As important and monumental as they might be, they are not the whole story.  The outcome has yet to be written. 
In this context, one often harbors doubts about the outcome of a relationship with God.  In the Christian context, the story has been written with an incomplete outcome.  You and I make up the balance of that story.  We determine how the final chapters will be written, what the outcome of our lives will be.  We can be assured there is more trouble ahead.  In the interim, it is important to remember that we are part of a greater story.
“'The day is coming, raging like a forest fire.  All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash- a black day.  But for you, sunrise!  The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings.  You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking.  And you'll tromp on the wicked.  They'll be nothing but ashes under your feet on that Day.'  God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.”  (Malachi 4,1-3)
This could be our outcome.