“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

In the British system of education in which I was raised as a child in India, we referred to a period as a “full stop.”

As to the origin of this term, the telegraph seems to provide the most logical explanation. The end of a sentence was marked by the word STOP. The end of the telegram in its entirety was denoted by FULL STOP.

In American usage, a period refers to the dot used to signify the end of a sentence.

Thus the period/full stop signals that you have come to a point where you absolutely need to stop. You can go no further.

What applies to a sentence also applies to our lives, doesn’t it?

There are times when we are forced to face a period and come to a full stop.

It could be the end of a relationship, a career, a business or a phase of life.

The ultimate would be the end of life itself as we know it. Death is definitely punctuated by a full stop. Period.

That is what the disciples of Jesus experienced on Good Friday. The end of a journey. The end of the road. The end of His life. “Low in the grave he lay.”

But everything changed on the third day when Jesus was raised from the dead, amen?

Death was no longer a full-stop. The period was now replaced by a comma, hallelujah!

That gives us hope that when we die, “God will raise us from the dead by His power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead.” (I Corinthians 6:14)

However, Resurrection power is not just reserved for the end of our lives, it is also made available when we reach certain ends in our lives.

This is how the apostle Peter puts it: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)

Paul articulates this living hope in these familiar words from 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Do you see the predominant punctuation mark in this statement? It is the comma.

If we were to truncate each clause at the point of the comma, these would be the most hopeless statements ever uttered.

We are hard-pressed on every side. Period.

We are perplexed. Period.

We are persecuted. Period.

We are struck down. Period.

The comma changes everything. It adds hope.

Isn’t it sad when many in our world today, Christians and non-Christians alike, put a period where God puts a comma?

We hear so many tragic stories of those who give up on life, renounce their faith, lose all hope and sometimes even take their own life.

They thought they had hit a full stop. Period.

What if they had replaced that period with the comma that comes from faith in the Resurrection of Jesus? What a difference that would have made!!

For now they would know that what looked like the end of the road was no more than a bend in the road. What seemed to be a period was actually a comma that offered hope.

How about you? Have you resigned yourself to seeing nothing more than a period in certain situations you are facing right now?

Please ask the Holy Spirit this simple question: “Am I placing a period where God has placed a comma?”

If the answer is No, Praise God! If Yes, please repent, replace the period with a comma and keep moving forward.

Why put a comma where God’s put a period, eh?