Happily Ever After

We all ask questions to the stars at night.  We all wonder why things happen the way they do, and why things don't happen.  As the struggles of life drift by I often pause in life; what does everything mean?  In those few moments that life makes sense we bask in the warmth of understanding.  But in all those other times when nothing seems to quite add up...what do we do then?  What can we do?  The world we live in can often be overwhelming.  A life filled with people in need; filled with people who have broken hearts, broken spirits.  What can I do about it?  I often seem to have my own broken heart, and my own broken spirit.  What do I have to have to offer?  Realistically I can't offer anything...I'm no different than the struggling person next to me.  It's a hard realization to come to.  However privileged we might feel in life...we aren't.

Perfection is something humanity has always striven for, and the results have made themselves clear in our struggle.  True perfection can never be accomplished here, and our substitutes for perfection are self-destructive addictions.  Have you ever noticed that some of the most beautiful moments in life have been when sorrow and pain are embraced?  When families come together in hardship, when friends struggle through together, when lovers stick through those times life doesn't make sense.  For how much our world searches for happiness it seems that all we find are struggles, yet within those hard times we find the hope that our beating hearts depend on to survive.

Life isn't about blowing bubbles and living happily ever after.  As much as we want that and as depressing as it sounds life never goes that way.  But here's the good news.  Since we can't reach perfection, since we can't make things always sunny, since we can't live happily ever after lives we no longer have to worry.  The balance of life is not in our control.  Our destiny is not in our control.  We no longer have to worry about where our hope will come from, we no longer have to worry about fixing up our lives to reach some fantasy life we want.  All we have to do is live life.  All we have to do is let go.  Our yokes are heavy but His is light.  Our yokes bring frustration but His brings peace.  Not a perfect life, not a life that will always make sense, not a life where everyone will always love us or be there for us.  But a life where He will always be there for us, a life with a destiny that has already been made for us.  A life with a beautiful horizon.  So when the desert around us seems to be unbearable all we need to do is look to the horizon, to gaze on the horizon, and there we will see it.  Through the tears of today we will see it.  Through the aching heart and the confused mind we will see what we have always wanted to see.  A hope that never fails...a love that will never leave us...a Savior who will always be there and has written our destiny for us to be forever saved, to be never alone, and to live a life of purpose...and someday...on that horizon there lies a place where we just might...live happily ever after.