Our Need for Closure

Cliffhangers have always been a pet peeve of mine. There is some type of effect that lingers upon one's mind and emotion when you finish an open-ended story and that effect is an annoying one. There are so many questions left to be answered and so many possibilities of how the conflict should be resolved that one would simply choose to go over the cliff just to end the agony of not knowing what happens next. However, this does open up the chance of a sequel but not all stories have a sequel or not all authors choose to write a sequel so there is a pestering feeling of irresolution because the story is missing a definite end or that there is no release for the tension that has already been built up from the preceding events of the story.

In my experience, it may become frustrating to a certain point but as time passes by, the feeling will dissipate and you will most likely forget about it because you have your own life to live and that story is continually being revealed to you so the fictional world gets thrown aside for the urgency of the reality in which we are living in. By writing an open-ended story, the author transfers his right to make the decisive argument that would deliver his point home, tying in all the loose ends of the story. This allows for imagination and creativity, and there is a certain charm to it that some may find attractive and quickly pounce on, but it would just fail to make the lasting impression it should have made and it would be doing an injustice to the reader who had been so emotionally immersed in the story and felt that they have been shortchanged for the amount of time and attention that they have invested in following the journey of the characters whom they consider part of their lives already.

I believe that everything in life, just as in literature, needs closure. We need to know where we are supposed to go or where our decisions would lead to because all the effort that we exerted to bring us there would be worthless if we were to find out that it actually leads us nowhere, as in like a vacuum of some sort. It would be such a big let down to find out in the end that our whole story would have no specific end, as if there was no meaning to the events that happened to our lives, that in the end, nothingness was our destination. What misery it would be to discover that our lives were not really going anywhere, that we would be floating in limbo, and no resolution or absolution would be in sight.

Thankfully, I know that there would be closure for all of us, that we would not simply float like stardust in the vast expanse of the universe, wandering like the desert vagabond or Matthew McConaughey as he voyages down the wormhole (and he stays there without moving on to the five-dimensional space where there are books all around him). If we get stuck in that wormhole, we would rather wish that our lives would end or that we never existed in the first place if our lives were headed toward virtual non-existence. But I know that there is an end to our stories, it is a fact of life that all of us would die and move on to eternity where everything would be revealed by the source and the termination of all things, Jesus Christ. We would not be left floating in uncertainty. We are not bound to virtual non-existence. We have eternity to look forward to, but the destination is dependent upon whether you put your faith in Christ or not, because there is no middle ground - it is either eternal life or eternal punishment for us, there is no denying it.

I hope you know where you will end up in but if you don't and you want to make sure, there is only one way to have certainty and that is in Jesus Christ. That is the whole reason why we remember what He did almost 2,000 years ago and why this weekend has been such a significant one throughout the whole of history. There is an end and the end is in God's hands. Jesus Christ opens up His arms for us and He calls us to put our faith in Him and in what He did, in what He said, and repent from our sins. We need to turn back from our selfish, sinful life; we need to put an end to that life and to that old person. Jesus will give you a new heart, a new life, and your life will never be the same. This is far more than the promise of heaven, that is just a part of it. You would be having a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Creator of the heavens and the earth who gave life to all creation and holds everything in place. The Son of God would be taking away your sins and giving you His righteousness so that you might be reconciled to the Father. He will be in you and He will transform you to be just like Him.

We all need closure in our lives. We need to know that our lives are not meaningless but we can only have meaning in our lives when we find it in Jesus Christ. Let Him be the termination of all the joy and satisfaction that you would ever find. Let Him be your beginning and your end. Have a blessed Easter!