One of the worst movies I ever watched was The Grey. When the trailer came out, I was excited to see Liam Neeson singlehandedly fight off a pack of wolves with nothing but a broken bottle, as only he could do. However, (spoiler alert), he doesn’t. Rather I got to see two hours of hopelessness ending in defeat and never getting to see the victory that was advertised.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on dramadies- telling me it’s a comedy, and halfway through, I’m crying instead of laughing, and finding out I’ve been deceived into watching a drama.
Some people like dramas I guess. They say they are more “realistic.” On the surface, that seems true. Life is hard, things don’t work out how we want them to, terrible things happen. But I argue, the fairy tale endings are actually the realistic ones.
Near the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Samwise Gamgee exclaims, “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?” For the Christian, that is exactly what we will experience. In the end, God will win, everything will be made right, and He will wipe every tear from our eyes. I believe that we love happy endings because God has made our hearts to long for them. It’s what we are made for.
I am so thankful to have the hope of eternity. I’ve heard the wailing of hopeless people here in PNG. When someone here dies, everyone goes to a “house cry” and mourns for several days, with a kind of wailing that I’ll never forget. Oh, how I long to tell people that death doesn’t have to be the end! That there is a God who loves them so much that He died for them.
Thanks for supporting us as we seek to bring this message of hope to the hopeless. Thanks for praying for us as we seek to remember that our hope is not in this world.
Oh, and if you find yourself in the midst of a real-life drama, remember that the story isn’t finished yet.
Till all know,
Matt, Karissa, Ty, and Wyck
Praise God:
- We were able to have some fun as a family over the school break
- Karissa got some good time to prepare for next term
- Ty and Wyck have been having fun with a neighbor friend
Please Pray:
- That we can do a good job teaching next term
- That we can balance being teachers and parents well
- That God will provide for all of our needs