Tuesday, November 12, 2013

challenging happy endings

Today my sister blogger, and sister in Christ, Nina wrote about happy endings, or rather the lack of happy endings, on her blog. http://ninaroesner.com/2013/11/11/dont-worry-be-happyyeah-right/

Rather than fill her comment box with a blog post, I'll share my link with her, and this response in blog form, with all of you.

Happy endings. In books and in movies, plays too and in dreams. Happy endings. Can you imagine standing at the check out and NOT seeing a headline about someone's missed happy ending or lament of an imperfect life?

Confession time: this is a post that is HARD to write, and being written during a HARD time. A time I'd like to know has an END that I can see. But I can't. None of us can. So onward!

Happy endings. Happily ever after. I always wondered - after what? 

It should be Joy filled journey!  or Walk the road together!  It is all about how we get there, and who we go there with.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.



Act justly.
Love mercy.
Walk humbly with our God.

No happy endings prescribed here. No fairy tales. No pot of gold. Just a walk along our life with our Lord. And the people who are in our lives. 

He asks us to do three things - DO being the key here.

Act Justly - with our children, our spouses, our families and friends. With strangers. With those we've set boundaries with. With those who hurt us.

Love Mercy - the kind of mercy that Jesus showed, and shows us. The kind of mercy that is worthy of love.

Walk humbly with your God. Personal time, walking with God. Not behind Him. Not ahead, yelling over our shoulders. Beside. With.

So in our happy journey we can let go of the fairy tale.

(and as a side note, if you make a study of fairy tales the 'happy endings' are often lessons in unexpected consequences and warnings of traps that stop us from having a full life. Trust me. Fairy tales are almost always, in their early or original forms, cautionary tales. We are so used to the Disneyfication of them that the warnings, cautions and teachings are lost.)

When we let go of the I WANT or WHERE IS MY then we can act justly. We can love mercy. We can walk humbly.

If we are to love our spouses, and respect them, then we need to understand how Jesus loves us.  And how He wishes us to journey. There is no need for a wistful 'happy ending' when we can have 'the most amazing journey ever' instead!

Don't ask for a happy ending!  Don't buy into any happily ever after that does not include eternal salvation!  Instead, join in the journey. Live each day acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly.

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