Happily ever after? A fairy tale life? Not necessarily. Many stories that we call fairy tales end with those words “And they lived happily ever after.” And generally, we like those stories. And why do we like them?! Well, for one reason, we like happy endings. We enjoy happy endings. We like to watch movies and T.V. shows and hear stories that end happy. On the other hand, movies or dramasthat end in tragedy, - often many people don’t even want to watch that kind of movie. Or if they watch the movie, and discover that it ends in tragedy, people will sometimes say things like, “I didn’t like that movie.” Or some may say “That was an interesting story, but I didn’t like how it ended.” Often stories or movies with sad or tragic endings will encourage some to remark, “I wish I hadn’t watched that movie.”
People sometimes find themselves frustrated or sometimes even feeling down, discouraged, and even a little depressed after watching certain movies or stories or shows on T.V. Why is this true? Well, for one thing, people often take stories we watch rather seriously. Everyone likes to hear a good story. And we invest ourselves somewhat into the stories we watch or hear. We invest our time, our attention, our thoughts, our feelings, and our emotions, our concerns to some degree into movies, T.V., etc. that we watch or are entertained by. It is an investment of our selves. And it is a costly investment.
It is said often in our world, “Time is money.” Your time is very valuable. And wasted time is wasted life! Your time, your attention, your emotions, etc. all have significant worth. So, when we watch and are entertained by drama, we are investing our time, our attention, and our emotions, into the watching of the dramas that entertain us. We are intrigued by an interesting story, though the story does not even touch our lives directly. They do touch us in this way : we are being entertained by the story as it unfolds before us. And we are “spending” or investing our valuable time, attention, concern and emotions on drama while it entertains us.
It’s very helpful to realize and acknowledge some of these realities. Also, its important to know and understand that people like to be entertained. People really, really do enjoy entertainment. In fact, people enjoy entertainment to the point that we too often WORSHIP entertainment. People enjoy entertainment to a fault. It’s a contemporary “god” in our culture, and its influence is huge. In fact, its more or less overwhelming. People pay large amounts of money to be entertained. People pay a lot of money buying T.V.’s, paying for cable, movies, concerts etc. And of course sports entertainment is a huge part of this reality as well. Many of the highest paid people in our culture are movie stars and athletes. And its not even their fault. People will pay a lot of money to be entertained. And because people value and put so much money into entertainment that’s a huge reason why some of the highest paid people in our culture are athletes, movie stars and T.V. stars, producers, etc. The entertainment industry is one of the richest industries in the world.
My encouragement to each of us is this: Invest in the drama of your own life. To put it another way, put most of your time, your heart, your energy, your money, your emotions, and your attention – into making the drama – the story of your life - a story with a good story line. Also, live in such a way that the drama – the story of your life – has a happy ending. Well, just how do we do that? Well, I ‘m glad you asked. The key to investing wisely into the drama of your own Life is – write the character of Jesus into your story. In other words, invite Jesus into your life. When you do this, when you write Jesus into your story, it’s only then that it can have a genuinely “happy” – a really happy and fulfilling ending.
Once you have invited Christ into your heart to be Lord and Savior of your life, your story will always make a dramatic turn for good. Always. After you have written Him into the script of your life, keep Him there. Make it your goal to write Him into the script of your life – everyday. How?
Well, one way is - spend time doing three things:
P - Pray daily. Spend time in prayer everyday.
R - Read the Word of God everyday. (I would recommend three chapters or more a day.)
O - Obey what you read in the Word of God.
(The initials spell PRO.)
Doing these things help you to walk with God daily. This is how you keep writing Jesus into the script of Your life. Now to be honest with you, as we grow in our walk with the Lord. We learn an important truth. As we live a life daily reading and meditating on the Word of God and daily living a life of prayer, we come to a wonderful discovery. We discover that we really are not writing the Script at all. Though we thought we were, we were not. In reality, Jesus is the author, and He has already written the script. And the script is an absolutely wonderful story. And in time we learn that we did not write Him into our Story. In His love and grace, He wrote us into His. So, our job is simply to read and listen to HIS script. That is, we are to read the Word of God, obey the Word and listen to the Holy Spirit. As we live our lives this way, we really are investing in the drama of our own lives. Know this, that as you read and listen and follow the script, - the story Jesus has already written for You - this will always be true. Your story will always have an exciting and happy ending. And you will Live HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
I conclude with this illustration. There were two persons who had just left a play that they had watched. Both had found the story interesting, yet both of them were frustrated with the play and how it ended. In a nutshell, all the key charactors – the persons in the play that most people would have liked, died a tragic death. The first person, who happened to have been a Christian, thoughtfully asked the second, “What was wrong with that story?” The second person, who was not a Christian, Thought for a few moments. Then gave this reply, “That story needed a savior.”
You and I and everyone else, in order for our story to turn out alright, Our story needs a Savior. And His name is Jesus Christ. We need a Savior who can take the shattered, broken, and disappointing pieces of our lives and turn them into a story that is a masterpiece. A masterpiece that absolutely no one else could author but Him.
Be sure that you do choose to write Christ into your story. It’s a choice you will never regret.
