Finding Joy When #TheStruggleIsRealSample

Day 7: Happily Ever After—What Happens After We Become Unstuck?

Stories from Scripture do not place a high priority on happy endings and perfectly executed resolutions. The last recorded words of the woman at the well are “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29). We know some resolution from her story. We know that her statement changed the people in her town. We know that her words created interest, that the townspeople urged Jesus to stay with them, and that He stayed for two additional days. We don’t know what He said—who He touched with His grace and truth, who He healed with His wholehearted power. But we do know that by the time Jesus and His disciples moved on, many in the town believed that Jesus was the Savior of the world. We don’t know what happened to the woman who was living with a man who was not her husband. Did they settle down, get married? Did they buy a house with a white picket fence and have 2.5 kids? Did they go on to a live a prosperous but faithful life? Did they get their happy ending?

We don’t know. We won’t know while we live on this earth. But maybe we do have resolution in this story, and in all the stories of Scripture. Maybe resolution looks like this story—grace and truth and knowledge of God, a woman’s life turned upside down, and the many people around her changed by her new story.

When we choose the new story, our storyline changes. It’s no longer just about who we are, and the moments that matter. It’s about seeking and finding Jesus in those moments—in the struggle--letting Him rewrite our past, present and future into a redemptive story of hope. 

Perhaps we are focused on the wrong parts of the story’s ending. Resolution may look like unfinished business and unreconciled relationships. It may look like continued gray scale in so many aspects of life—in our sin, in our struggle, in our suffering. Resolution may look like more uncertainty in this temporary life and more certainty about God. Resolution may look like bumps and bruises that remind us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

Resolution may look like daily reminders of our own weakness, when we must choose to believe that God is greatest, and He knows best because we don’t have any other options. Resolution may look like the unwritten parts of the story where our only true hope is the goodness of God and the reality of eternity.

Perhaps that’s the only happy ending we truly need.

Conversation Starter: Too often we Christians tell a very dangerous story: that all things have happy endings. That leaves a lot of people really lonely because this isn’t their story. How have you handled the unfinished business in your own story?

Getting Started: Make a list of all of the “unresolved” issues in your life and commit to praying about them regularly. Consider what a “happy ending” would look like for each and continue to seek God’s wisdom and guidance in making these endings a reality. 

Verses:

Romans 12:12

Galatians 6:9

Psalm 37:7-9