A Superb Writer of Endings

It’s the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. She’s a young girl and he’s a song writer. They meet and fall in love; she becomes his muse and his creativity becomes unstoppable, all to the detriment of Eurydice who, being neglected, becomes so hungry and desperate for food that she pays the price to go to the underworld where King Hades, himself, rules this world. A place where she believes that she’ll never be hungry again. When Orpheus realizes where Eurydice has gone, he runs to rescue her.

It’s an incredibly heartbreaking Greek tragedy, a tony award winning musical, Hadestown, that I experienced Friday night and have yet to get out of my mind. It has brought a heaviness to my heart and my soul as I sit in this story. A story that ends with King Hades being willing to let Eurydice go back to the world above, to follow Orpheus, as long as Orpheus doesn’t turn around to check if she’s truly following. He has to have and maintain faith that she is there. If his faith waivers and he does turn around, she’ll be taken immediately back to Hades. You can guess the ending. Yes, he turns and yes she returns to Hades. But the real heartbreak is how the show, the story ends…or doesn’t. Hades rules their lives, mastering their story and forces them to live it repeatedly, each time with the very same heartbreaking ending only to start it all over again.

There are so many views of what hell is like. From fire and brimstone to hell being strictly here on earth. But I’m stuck on this story, this hell. Eurydice and Orpheus living their lives, their heartbreak over and over and over again.

I think everyone, to some extent, has had repeated tragedy in their lives. Not the same story, of course, but a similar pain. For me, my most tragic moments have been the loss of my best friend to cancer, a broken relationship, my marriage ending, and the severe TBI that my granddaughter has suffered. I have not been immune to tragedy and yet the one thing that is vastly different, as I think about this musical, is the promise and the follow through of hope.

I find myself thinking about the verse where Jesus says, “In this world there will be trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” I think up to this point, I have never really understood this verse. I have struggled with what Jesus meant when he said that he has overcome the world when I am in this world, often feeling overcome by it. But as I think about this story and my personal tragedies, I have found a different perspective. At the risk of using creative license with scripture, I am “rewriting” this particular verse to say, …”take heart, I will help you overcome the world.” Because I’ve realized that that is what God has done for me again and again and again.

Unlike Eurydice and Orpheus, I’m not stuck in the hamster wheel of life, unable to get off or be set free from the never-ending pain and loss. I have a hope in the One True God who has gone to great lengths to love me and rescue me. To write new endings to my stories. Yes, death came, divorce happened, a relationship remains broken and Eva is not fully healed, yet these stories are not done yet. Because of the promised hope of restoration and healing that will come here and/or in heaven. My God is a superb writer of endings and I can’t wait to read what he’s come up with for mine.