NO ‘HAPPY END’?!

By Helen Jesze, 17th July 2015

Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

Psalms 107:6 KJV

Cinema-legend, actor and film-producer Woody Allen was once interviewed by a well known German magazine. He was asked about his (at that time) most recent film Cassandra’s Dream, the story of two brothers who dreamed of having a yacht, riches and beautiful women. Their dreams led them to murder and the dreams became a nightmare.

Interviewer: „Why doesn’t your thriller have a ‘Happy End’?“
Woody Allen: „Because Life doesn’t have one. People go to the cinema to run away from the reality of their life! Our very existence is a tragedy. We are born – and don’t know why. We live – and don’t know what for. We die – and there is no Paradise.“

While it could well be true that we love to lose ourselves for a while in a film, to live Life second hand, through someone else’s life on a screen rather than our own, yet what a cynical, empty life-philosophy these quotes show! Of course, to anybody who is an atheist, who denies even the existence of God, it may be understandable that he feels this way.

„Why were we born?“ is something that countless people have asked, and particularly young people who are trying to find the meaning to Life. They look in many different places and try many different things to find the answer to this question, usually becoming more and more empty inside. The one true answer is that we should be finding our identity and reason for living in JESUS.

That God-shaped hole inside Man’s heart can only be satisfied and filled with – GOD.

It was quoted that a British footballer said he had become a born-again Christian, which sounds like good news. However, the quote went on to say that this man did not believe in an after-life. What Bible had he been reading? What about the words of Jesus where he spoke so many times of the life that is to come?

For life on the earth can only really be understood by those who believe in a life after death!

Our body may be put in a coffin, and the coffin lowered into the earth, but the eternal, never-dying spirit of Man immediately enters Eternity. His chance to choose whether he goes to Heaven or Hell is made in this life. God wants to give us a ‘happy end’ in this life and also in the life to come.

My husband and I know a Lutheran vicar and his wife, who had five children. Two of their teenage sons became mentally ill and were both a long time in a mental hospital. This was a terrible time for the parents and many people were praying for God to intervene and heal the boys. One day the shocking news came that the boys had committed suicide, jumping from a cliff-top together.

It looked as though there was no ‘happy end’ as the boys were buried under the trees near the church. Yet God turned around what Satan had done and sent a mighty spiritual move especially among the young people in the area. Hundreds poured into the services and many gave their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a time of sowing in tears, but they reaped in joy, despite all the pain.

A Christian man was travelling on board a steamer one hundred and fifty years ago. There was a terrific storm and the ship was thrown onto some rocks and broke up. All the passengers and crew were drowned except this man, who was able to escape onto a small island nearby.

He was terribly grieved for the loss of all his fellow-travellers and horrified to think that he might have to live all the rest of his life on this desert island, and never go back to civilisation. The only thing he could do was to cry out to the Lord to bring him out of this terrible situation.

But the days went on, and knowing he had to survive somehow, he started to explore the island and chose a place near a small stream to make his makeshift camp. The tide had brought in several articles from the ship which became very useful, including some tools and a gun; in time, he even built himself a crude house to live in.

One day he was away longer than usual, exploring the island and hunting for food. On the way back, he noticed a column of smoke rising into the air, in the direction of his house. He began to run, and bursting into the clearing, he saw his precious house was going up in flames. Everything was lost! Despair filled his heart and he cried out,

„Why, God, did this have to happen?! I have prayed and prayed, but you don’t seem to hear me, and now this…!“

Worn out, his tears spent, he curled up under a tree and slept till morning. On waking, he heard voices and saw a large ship out in the bay, with men rowing towards the island, in small boats. His first thought was that they might be pirates, but when a man in a Captain’s uniform got out of one of the boats and walked up the beach, the man came out of hiding and walked slowly towards the newcomers.

„Why have you come here?“ the castaway questioned.
„We got your message! So here we are!“ the Captain replied.
„Message?“ the castaway questioned. „I did not send a message.“
„Yes, you did! We saw your fire!“ the Captain laughed.

Then the man realised that God had now answered his prayer! The burning house which had seemed to him the worst thing that could happen, had brought him deliverance. The man was able to return to England on the ship, with another wonderful testimony of God’s goodness, and ability to bring about a ‘happy end’.

When we look at the chaos around us in the political, financial and social worlds we, too, often wonder how things will turn out.

Perhaps in our own life, we also see chaos or great difficulties. Despite every challenge and disappointment we can say that we have read the end of the Book and it turns out well for those who have given their lives into God’s keeping, and taken His Son as their personal Saviour. The Book is of course, the Bible, God’s written Word for Mankind.

Prayer: Thankyou Heavenly Father, for every time that you have turned things around in my life, for stepping in and turning my sorrow into joy. I bring you everything which is burdening me.

I trust you today with my future and to bring about your Will in my life, which will always bring a ‘happy end’, either in this life or in the greater one — Eternity — which is to come! Help me to see with your eyes, to hear what you have to say, and to believe that you are working on my behalf.

Lastly Father, those things which are still regrets in my life, which still hurt and chafe me, I choose to believe that even those things, you can change and bring about something for your glory!

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!