I prefer happy endings. Don’t get me wrong, a good plot twist or cliffhanger at the end of a movie is entertaining, but I really like for the story to get wrapped up and have a neat little bow tied on it. I like for things to feel completed. I realize “happily ever after” isn’t necessarily a real thing, but like the sitcoms of the old days, I like for the episode to work through the clouds and find the silver lining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, with that being said, I recognize that everyday life is not always that way. I know there are nights that you and I lie down to sleep, and all the struggles of the day have not yet been resolved. It could be, in fact, that many days or weeks pass before those daily issues are resolved. Some may never truly get resolved in our time on earth. It doesn’t mean I don’t do my best to find some resolution. That brings me to a day almost 2000 years ago. Jesus hanging on a cross. Beaten. Bruised. Bloody. Suffering. Then He drew his last breath, and the earthquake began-commotion in the streets and chaos in the temple. Then, when all the commotion stopped, He was hanging lifelessly on the cross. Just a mangled body where a Savior had been. Is that the end of the story? I hope not! That’s not a happy ending. The cross and the Savior on it were not beautiful at first. There was sadness and there was fear. Thanks be to God that it wasn’t the end of the story. To get to the end, you need to fast-forward three days. Three long days for the disciples. Days of remembering and mourning. Days of nervously waiting for what might come next. And I don’t know that most of them knew what that was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus had told them, but they didn’t quite understand or believe it. Until\u2026 The empty tomb and an angel’s message: “He isn’t here. He is risen from the dead\u2026”<\/strong> (Matthew 28:6). There is the Happy Ending! It resulted in joy then, and it should result in joy now. We serve a King who is alive! We serve a Savior who is risen from the dead! It is literally Good News. Even the story of the most brutal death in history has a happy ending. So even if life seems difficult\u2026even when things seem hard\u2026remember that He rose from the dead, and because He lives, we can face anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I prefer happy endings. Don’t get me wrong, a good plot twist or cliffhanger at the end of a movie is entertaining, but I really like for the story to get wrapped up and have a neat little bow tied on it. I like for things to feel completed. I realize “happily ever after” isn’t… Continue reading Happy Endings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","category-marks-messages","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5914,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions\/5914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}