Happily Ever After?

...and they all lived happily ever after, the end.

Why is it that so many stories focus on reaching the happy endings? The knight in shining armor sweeps the princess off her feet, and they get married and live happily ever after. Cinderella story after Cinderella story show a mistreated girl falling in love with a guy who will fix all her problems, and they live happily ever after. True love, marriages, and happy endings all around, in just about any love story you find. They all (or just about all) end exactly the same way, with a happily ever after, the end.

But when we look at our own lives, how often do we feel like we've reached our happily ever afters? Last I checked, about half of all marriages end in divorce, so falling in love and getting married hardly equates to a happily ever after nowadays. And even if the marriage doesn't fall apart, there's always the occasional (or not-so-occasional) fight. It's not always "happy".

What about those who never marry? Who never find "true love"? Are they expected to just keep waiting around for some prince, knight, or hero to come save them from their singleness and provide their happily ever after?

Where did we come up with this utopian ideal of love and happy endings!

It seems absurd to me how many tales tell of happily ever afters, but realistically, that's what we want to hear, right? We want to hear that things will all work out fine in the end and that we'll get our happy endings. We want the hope that someday we will live happily ever after and be free of worries and struggles. The problem comes when we expect our happy endings to come from worldly things: that finding the right spouse or the right job will lead to our happy endings.

Life is hard. We have to work at what we want, and maybe, in the end, we'll have our true happy endings. In Max Lucado's book Fearless, he writes, "Everything will work out in the end. If it's not working out, it's not the end." However, we shouldn't focus so much on reaching the end that we miss out on the blessings we have right now. To quote Delenn from Babylon 5, "Wherever we are is the right place at the right time. The pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born." So instead of focusing on finding our happy endings in this life, maybe we should focus on making the most of life as we know it right where we are. After all, on my deathbed, I don't think I'll care too much about how happy I am right at that moment. I want to be able to look back at my life and find that I lived in the moment, appreciated the good times and the growing times, and lived my life to the fullest while I still had it. If you spend my whole life looking for a happy ending, you're gonna miss out on living a happy life.  

It's not always gonna be easy, but climbing the mountain of life never is. However, when I reach the top, I want to look back at the path I took with joy and gratitude for the times I had. But until that day, I try to remember that even in the worst and hardest of times, everything will work out in the end, finally leading to a truly happy ending.

Thankfully, that day will come. It won't happen in this life, but it will happen for those who love God and follow Him. 

In Revelation, John writes about a happy ending, when God makes everything new. He'll wipe away the tears from our eyes and welcome us with open arms into a perfect kingdom where we will dwell with God forever. This is the true happily ever after!

Sadly, I fear many people looking for their happily ever afters are going to miss out on this one. God says in Revelation 21 that "the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars" won't get the joys of a perfect life with Him, but that they will suffer and die in the fires of hell. When we look for happiness in this life and prioritize sins and things of this world over God, then we're missing out on the ultimate happiness that only God can provide! If you're too afraid to accept God, then you won't receive His blessings. If you refuse to believe in Him but instead believe worldly ideas, you're not going to experience heavenly life. If you idolize worldly things from people to phones to your own success or anything in between, you can't accept everything God wants for you. And then, you'll find you were looking for your happy ending in the wrong place. 

The Bible never says this life is going to be easy. We're going to have to struggle whether we live for God or not. That's part of life. It's just going to be far more manageable and rewarding if we lean on Him instead of on ourselves. Jesus taught that "in this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world." He's already conquered, and it's only a matter of time before He returns to bring His people home for an eternal happy ending. Don't you want to be a part of it? 

Getting in on this happy ending is really simple (not easy, but simple): you just have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and choose to love and follow Him. Do what the Bible says. Love God and people. Live intentionally for him. Turn your back on sin and worldly possessions, obsessions, and lifestyles. It's worth it in the end, I promise.