Christian Living

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There Will Be A Morning After!!!
© 2007

by

Stephen A. Peterson


Marsha Berndt, 17, left her home in Bowlegs, Oklahoma. She left friends, family and most tragedically—a young man named Mario Perez, 18, whom she had known since Kindergarten to attend Engineering school at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. A month before she left, Marsha and Mario vowed that distance would never change their very special relationship. But unfortunately it did. Marsha and Mario were growing up—growing apart, not together. When Marsha returned to Bowlegs during the Christmas break, she talked with Mario. Somehow the feelings of the past were just not there for the couple.

Confused, angry and with feeling of loss, Marsha got into her car and drove aimlessly down State Highway 99 towards Seminole. Marsha wondered if changes in her life, particularly a relationship, would always be as painful as this. To try to think of something other than the hurtful experience, Marsha grabbed for a CD—any CD. Perhaps the noise would help her forget or at least dwell on something else. Then the music rushed forward from the rear of her speakers: “There’s got to be a morning after…then the next song ended, “…when people change…”
Marsha thought, “Maybe someone or something is trying to tell me something.”

Three years passed. Marsha and Mario never did get together again. Now a senior, all the painful adolescent anxiety and sadness were gone. Whenever she thinks about her high school and Freshman college years, they are PAST memories—great memories! Marsha then realized that happiness and growth come not by dwelling on and clinging to the past, but by looking forward to the future.

Now at the cusp of her fourth decade on earth, Marsha earned her Masters in Engineering, found a husband she considered marvelous and three well-rounded children. And although she cannot for the sake of her remember the titles of the songs she played as she drove aimslessly towards Seminole, Oklahoma that day, she did remember the words she believes and knows God discussed with her that day: “There’s got to be a morning after…when people change…”

The next time you are overwhelmed by fear, a loss or personal tragedy that causes change—big or small—you might consider those words as well…and welcome the morning after with courage and the assurance from God Himself that the disruptive forces you are experiencing will be a forgone conclusion to the magnificent event God is about to grant you in your future!

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