A Story With a Good Ending

I guess I'm pretty cynical. No, I know I'm pretty cynical (just asks anyone that knows me).

I really enjoy watching a movie that does not have a good ending. Does that make me a bad person? Not sure. But I know that I have seen hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands, of movies in my lifetime. I'm no Gene Siskel. But I have seen my share of movies.

I have seen enough to guess how most movies will end. The good person will eventually win out. The bad person will get what's coming to them. So when you have been set up for that ending, over time, it's sort of novel, sort of unique to watch something that doesn't end how you expect it will, something that surprises you.

The truth, I think, is that deep down we all want good endings to movies (even me, deep down). We want the good person to win, the bad person to lose . . . because that's how we want it to be in our lives. Our lives are like movie scripts (or is the other way around??). We have good stuff happen to us and plenty of not so good stuff mixed in, too. We hope that everything turns out in the end . . . like most movies do.

That's why, I believe, so many people are drawn to the story of God, particularly the whole Jesus part. It has a good ending. And I do not mean the Get Out of Jail Free Card that modern Christianity seems to be so enamorated with. There's more to the story of God than what we conjecture will play out after our earthly lives are over. Much, much, much, much more.

That's because God's story is still unfolding, it's still being acted out. It seems to me that God is very, incredibly interested in what's going on in our world. Not necessarily like a white-bearded old man ready to zap us when we do wrong. Actually, nothing like that at all (though many famous preachers and ministers might have you believe that).

Through the good story of Jesus, we see that God wants us all at the table. The rich, the poor, the fortunate in life, the unfortunate in life, the successful, the unsuccessful, men, women, Jew, Greek, slave, free, _____ (insert ANY other barrier that we have humans have come up with). God wants us all there. God likes us. God thinks good of us. God loves us. We're good enough, we're smart enough . . . you know the rest.

That's one thing (one very important, huge, gigantic) thing that the story of Jesus shows us. God is for us (not against us). I feel as though I'm rambling. So here it is: we find victory in Jesus when we live like Jesus. When we help bring others to the table, particularly the lonely, the hurting, the vulnerable (in other words, all of us). When we do that, our stories can't help but end GOOD. When we live like that, our lives are good . . . and the ending will be pretty darn good. Trust me, it will be. Or better yet, trust God.