Shortly after Sam Cooke’s death in 1964, A Change Is Gonna Come was released. The song was an instant classic, a haunting melodic masterpiece written and sung by Sam Cooke. Sam was born at a time where being black in America was seen as an everyday obstacle to overcome. The perpetual and blatant racism of the period had no doubt taken great physical and emotional strain on Mr. Cooke. When you listen to the song, he painfully declares in the second verse, “It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die. Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky.”

Much like Sam Cooke, most of us have probably realized by now that living can be difficult and many times it’s a hurdle just getting by daily. Jesus Christ assured his disciples that they will face pains, dangers, difficulties, and numerous afflictions while they lived but he also assured them that he has overcome the world (John16:33). What does that mean exactly? It means Jesus has overcome pains, difficulties, and the worst the world has to offer, which is death. Jesus has overcome it all. This doesn’t mean we won’t face those things because the truth is, we will.  But as a believer, we face every hardship and tribulation with the hope that Jesus will see us through. Even through death, Jesus will see us through.

And because Jesus Christ beat death, we will too.

And that is why unlike Mr. Cooke, the fear of death does not afflict the believer because as Paul the Apostle writes in II Corinthians 5:8,  “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

Living in this world might be hard but we will overcome. Death may come but we will pass through it into everlasting life. An everlasting life in the Kingdom of God filled with great peace and joy. A change is gonna come and we know this with all hope and certainty in Christ Jesus.