At The End Of The Day

We’ll be beginning our message Scripture right at the beginning of Genesis, Chapter 3 (pg. 4 of Pew Bible) in a few moments so if you’ll turn there, we start with a word of prayer.

Throughout our daily speech and even through the common talk of the sidewalks of this great country we call America, we often use a figure of speech we can an “idiom.” Now the definition of an “idiom” is a device that is “a set expression or a phrase comprising two or more words, used to convey a situation”. An interesting fact of idioms is that the expression of those words is not always to be interpreted literally. A few examples of idioms include

• “Kicking the bucket” which really has nothing to do with a bucket.

• When we say something is “a piece of cake”, we aren’t speaking of a box of Twinkies.

• When we say something costs “an arm and a leg” we aren’t trading in body parts for material goods.

• And when we tell someone to “hold their horses”, we aren’t asking them to run out to the local horse farm and grab a hold of the animals.

• And truly when someone has just “bought the farm”, I don’t think we’re talking about a real estate deal.

I think we use idioms more than we realize, and it’s been estimated that there are over 25,000 common idioms in the English language and their implications are usually readily and commonly understood. A few more like:

• “Letting the cat out of the bag”.

• “A fish out of water”.

• “I’m at the end of my rope.”

• “Seeing eye to eye on an issue”,

• and “I’m all ears”.

I think you get the point of what I am speaking.

One of the more recent idioms that has caught my attention is the phrase “At the End of the Day.” You hear it in politics, in business, on the news, and even applying to court cases. Most people who followed the O.J. Simpson Trial came away believing that the evidence pointed to O.J.’s unmistakable guilt, but “at the end of the day” the jury acquitted him.

Once again, don’t take the use of these words literally. This mornin, saying "at the end of the day" doesn’t mean at 11:45 tonight. Some of the synonyms of “At the End of the Day” would be

1. When the dust finally settles.

2. When all is said and done.

3. When the final straw is pulled.

4. In the Long Run

5. In the Final Analysis

We’ve come to use this phrase, “At the End of the Day” to kind of fast-forward to the unmistakable importance of “the ending of the story” so you don’t get sidetracked with the details on how the story was unfolding. Here’s a simple example of “at the end of the day” in children’s stories: It’s the “Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare”, The story concerns a Hare, (a silly wrabbit) who ridicules a slow-moving Tortoise. Tired of the Hare's boastful behavior, the Tortoise challenges him to a race.[2] The Hare sprints along the course and quickly leaves the tortoise way behind in the dust and, so confident of winning that he was, he stops to play - midway through the race. Still assuming that he’s way ahead, unable to be caught, and that he has the victory all sewed up, the Hare now takes a nap to rest up from the playtime. When the Hare awakes however, he finds that his competitor, the Tortoise - is crawling slowly but steadily, across the finish line before him. Were you to take bets before the race started, you’d have put all your money on the Hare. All indications of the story pointed to the Hare winning, but “At the End of the Day”, the tortoise won the prize.

I want to take this idiom of “At the End of the Day” and give it a few spiritual applications in our message today. For though things might look a certain way as they unfold and as we live out our lives, the results “at the End of the Day” might surprise us and should give us serious consideration. We start back in the Book of Genesis” where God created Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve

A perfect world, a perfect garden, a perfect relationship. Often a walk in the cool of the evening with the One who created them and loved them. They had the perfect marriage. No tiredness, no fighting over the remote, no income taxes. Who could ask for anything better? But one evening Genesis 3:8 (NKJV)

"8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."