This week in chapel, the theme was Your Story Is Important. Which I agree. Everyone has an important story. From the drug dealer turned Christian overnight, to the one raised in a Christian home goody two shoes, to the abused little girl, they all have important stores and they mattered. But what bothered me in chapel is that all the stories had a happy ending.
I missed Thursday, so maybe Thursday's story didn't have a happy ending. But it still bothers me that all the stories told more or less had a happy ending and that was "God working through it." The thing is, not all stories have a happy ending. Not all things in life wind up working out just right. And the thing is, God is still working through it. God is still working and glorious, magnificent and holy, even if all the ends aren't perfectly tied together. God is still God, and the stories are still important.
So why, then, are the stories of those still struggling left untold? Why are their stories shoved aside? Does no one want to hear the real, raw stories of pain and anguish? Don't they get it? God doesn't always give happy endings. He's not J. K. Rowling, who tortured her characters but in the end they all wound up all mushy and conquering and stuff. But that's not life. That's not how life works, but it seems that at times it's how Christians depict it. It bothers me. It bothers me to the core. But what can we done until those who are still struggling have the courage to step out and share their stores?
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4 replies ^_^:
Because Christians, as a group, believe that they're entitled to a happy ending, just because they're Christians. They want to believe that because God is in control and He loves us, that makes all our endings happy.
They. Are. All. Wrong!
God gives us unhappy to make us cherish the happy when we find it. I don't think I could love Gary or Abbi as much as I love them if I hadn't had to come out of a very dark, very ugly place in order to find them, and to find myself.
Speakers who only tell happy endings don't tell it all. They can't only tell happy endings and not tell it all. Even Christ suffered - and if anyone didn't deserve it, it was Him.
/end rant/
Let me rephrase: Speakers who tell only happy endings cannot tell it all, because even Christ suffered.
Or those who finish with a happy ending, are denying the pain and hurt that may still be there, lacking the strength to talk about it so pretending it doesn't exist. If that makes sense
Mmm yeah. Both of you make perfect sense to me. It's annoying, but it just happens. Hopefully, hopefully one day a "real" story without a happy ending will come out, right?
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