Because we’re Christians, and God is for us not against us, I think we have the impression that everything will work out in our favour because we ask God to do it. But, God doesn’t promise us a happy ending to our lives. People die; we grieve; it’s not happy.
I wonder what the disciples thought at the Last Supper when Jesus passed around the wine and said - "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
Wouldn’t that be freaky? Imagine if, today, someone told us they were “the new covenant” - would we nod our heads “ya ok, I get it”. Or would we think “uh, I don’t know about that, man”. It must have been hard for the disciples to accept those words.
Then, Jesus was betrayed by Judas and his buddy Peter pretended he didn’t even know Jesus. Jesus was beaten to bits and hung as a bloody mess on a cross as the soldiers made fun of him. That’s not a happy ending. (Yes, I know the resurrection is a happy ending.)
We have the Bible to give us the whole story, but in Jesus day, they didn’t have the whole book. So what was happening then was a current event. Imagine that. Being there with Jesus, watching the miracles and watching him die. Wow.
My point is that our lives may not end happily. Am I getting it?
Woah, I disagree, we might not have a "happy" run, but our lives WILL end happy. Eternal life with Jesus? How is that not happy?! Just because we go through unhappy situations does not mean we shopuld npt live opur life with full joy. Happiness is an emotion, Joy is everlasting.
ReplyDelete"Drink this... it's my BLOOOOOOD!" ... how goth is that?
ReplyDeleteTo the greater question, it does depend on the scope of the story we see. Our lives may not end happily, but we're not the story. We're part of the story, characters in a tale so much greater than our own. To get geeky with it, Bormir's death in Lord of the Rings was tragic, but it was a tragedy that heightened the impact of the story, and the larger story has a happy ending.
Our lives may not end with us happy. Many people's don't. Maybe the secret to happiness (or contentment) is the ability to rise outside of ourselves and gain a perspective that gives our lives scope, and to have confidence that the storyteller is greater than our part of the story.