Yesterday a leaked video hit the internet that made me happy, but also kind of sad. It seems to be the official alternate ending to the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother. And if the video was legit, it is a much, much better ending than the show gave during its series finale back in March. HIMYM caused a fairly major internet kerfuffle for its ending. It even bothered me a great deal and I'm a guy that was quite satisfied with how Lost finished.
In the finale, (Spoiler Alert for a show that aired half a year ago; also, don't worry this is going to relate to something practical if you didn't watch the show) we finally see the meeting of the titular mother, then Ted (the protagonist) pretty immediately tells the story about how the mother died. Then at the very end, Ted's kids encourage their dad to go ask Robin (another character) out, remarking that this whole story about how he met their mother was actually about how he's in love with Robin.
The show spent nine years purporting to tell one story when they were actually telling another. Thus How I Met Your Mother was actually How I Met, Fell in Love with, and Lost Robin, Met Your Mother, But Then She Died and Therefore is Kind of a Footnote to Robin. I didn't like that. I didn't like years of character development being sacrificed for what probably seemed like a clever idea a decade ago. I didn't like investing in one story and then being told at the last minute that it wasn't what the story was really about.
And that's what this is ultimately about: the story. Unless the turn is delightful or deepens the story in a meaningful way, we don't like there to be that narrative disconnect between what we're told to trust as the story and what actually is. If I told Jim that I was going to read him Curious George and then started reading Green Eggs and Ham, he would justifiably be upset. If EA said we were going to see Guardians of the Galaxy but it was actually The Conjuring 3: Conjure, Conjure Again, I would storm out of the theater (because of the story thing and not because I am absolutely terrified of horror movies).
At the end of the day, we're talking about fictional tales and while they can mean a great deal to us, they don't make and break our lives. But the stories we tell through how we live are different. We have to be incredibly careful that the stories we say that we are telling are actually the ones that we are telling.
I have a particular interest in how this relates to the ways in which we tell the gospel with our lives, because you, me, and everyone have this issue at times with adding our own wrinkles to the story. We put twists that we think are clever, but often send the story careening off the tracks.
We say that we are telling the story of the Gospel, but we often tell stories...
...of how we think that the best that God wants for us is health, wealth, and material possessions.
...of how we are "in" and those that are different from us are "out."
...of a personalized relationship where it's just you and Jesus and the whole point of this is going to heaven when you die.
...of how America is the greatest land in the whole entire history of the cosmos and is always in the right. What? What does that have to do with God? Oh, right, well, America is God's plan. We're the world's only hope. Besides where do you think the framers of the Constitution got their ideas from?
...of how it really doesn't matter what you do in this life because grace is really just God giving us carte blanche.
Obviously, those are extreme examples and not what you or I would typically do. Our twists are more sneaky. We may use the story of faith, the church, and Jesus to make us look better, to make us feel like we're part of something important, to excuse the wrong that we have done, or to hold someone else's wrong over their head. Sometimes we don't even do this on purpose. Yet it does happen.
Those twists don't have to define the story that we tell; though some do so more than others. I'll still remember HIMYM as a great show that just face planted the landing. But the key is to examine our lives (a la the prayer at the end of Psalm 139), to be honest with ourselves, and if we claim that we are following God then we ought to tell the story that we say that we're telling.
UPDATE: After I published this blog, I came across some news sources talking about an article posted on Charimsa Media's site called Why I Am Absolutely Islamaphobic. If that title seems horrible, just wait until the author suggests that the only way to curb the violence of radical fundamentalist Muslim terrorists is to kill all Muslims.
Never mind that there are millions of Muslims that strongly decry such terrorism. Forget that such a oxymoronic Holy War would put millions of innocents--Muslims, Christians, Jews, basically people of every creed--in life-threatening danger. Gloss over the fact that Jesus called us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek. Gary Cass writes:
"First trust in God, then obtain a gun(s), learn to shoot, teach your kids the Christian doctrines of just war and self defense, create small cells of family and friends that you can rely on if some thing catastrophic happens and civil society suddenly melts down...Now the only question is how many more dead bodies will have to pile up at home and abroad before we crush the vicious seed of Ishmael in Jesus' Name? The Good News is Jesus, and His indestructible church, will prevail, but there will be pain and heartache along the way to victory. May we be willing to take the lesser pains now so our children won't have to take greater pains later."
Gary Cass will assert that he is telling God's story. He's not. Instead he is telling a vile, reprehensible story of hatred and trying to wrap it in the beauty of the gospel. May he realize the lie of his story and may we tell better ones to drown it out.