Happily Ever After

I must apologize to you, my dear reader, because I have been terribly remiss in posting this last month.  I have been incredibly busy and posting just kept slipping my mind.  The last few weeks have been full to say the least.  It seems like I say this every post these days but there has been a lot of growing and a lot of stress and laughter and sadness.  Sadness especially has left his mark.  He was like the unwelcome party guest that no one could figure out how he got an invitation or even heard about the party, yet there he was inserting himself into any conversation and generally making his presence known.  How does one come to terms with him?  How does one deal with his unwelcome and painful existence?  This is a question that I have been asking myself time and time again.

I was recently watching TV with my mother.  A preview came on for a new movie that was now coming to DVD.  I was explaining to Mama how I had enjoyed the movie even though it was a sad story.  It had ended happily but there was still a sad beginning and middle.  She said, "I thought you didn't like sad stories."  If you know me at all I am sure you have heard me say at some point that I only like movies that have happy endings.  My theory is that the cinema is supposed to be an escape from the pressures and stresses and sadness of the day.  You should be able to walk into a theater or sit down on your couch and get lost even if for only 105 minutes and forget yourself and your troubles for a moment. So in response to my mother's question I said, "I don't like sad movies if they end that way.  But as long as it has a happy ending the beginning and middle can still be sad. If I know it has a happy ending I can get through it."

A few days ago I was driving home from worship team practice.  I was thinking about the frustrations I had been going through at work; the disappointment that I still had yet to find a job in Chattanooga; and on several other heartbreaking developments for me and my family.  As you can imagine I was pretty downhearted.  There was just so much sadness.  It seems the older I get the worse everything is.  Suddenly, God brought a quote to my mind.  It was from the last book of "The Lord of the Rings" series "Return of the King" when Sam Gamgee comes to after being saved with his master and friend Frodo by the eagles and Gandalf.  Sam wakes up and sees Gandalf and exclaims, "Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead. Is everything sad going to come untrue?" In the quiet of my car driving home in the darkness those words struck a chord. God reminded me in answer to Sam's question that yes, one day everything sad is going to come untrue.  Life is a mirror of my favorite type of movie.  Our lives have been sprinkled with a generous dose of sadness.  That is sin's effect.  We will always have times of sadness.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

Nothing is new under the sun.  But one day, after this fleeting life of ours has ended, everything sad will come untrue.  God will wipe every tear from our eye.  There will be no anxiety; there will be no disappointment; there will be no heartbreak.  Everything sad will come untrue and we as Christians will have our happy ending.  Happily ever after is not a myth for Christians because Christ has come and paid our debt and we can live in peace and hope that no matter how sad of a beginning or middle our time here on earth has our happily ever after is coming. 

Romans 8: 14-25 "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

So hang on, Christian.  Hang onto the hope that is awaiting you and live your life to the fullest knowing that come what may everything sad will come untrue.