What Is So Great About Happily Ever After?

As a young girl, I loved reading, and the line I always looked forward to was: "And they lived happily ever after." But I never stopped to think about what came after the high of reciprocated love. Did Cinderella enjoy adjusting to the restrictions of palace life? Did Belle find life in an isolated castle less provincial than her hometown?

I don't know. But what I do know is that eventually life slowed down. It became ordinary and predictable, for the most part. Because that is real life. Humans have a remarkable knack for becoming familiar with things. Even the most thrilling experiences can begin to feel mundane when repeated often enough. The most beautiful things can become common. Normal always follows the new thing, because it too eventually becomes normal.

Even happily ever after must submit to the humdrum rhythm of one day following another.

But I think that is precisely what makes happily ever after so great.

It is the small, ordinary, repeated things. Watching television together. Listening to podcasts on long-distance drives and enjoying the lively discussions that follow. Holding hands to pray in a crowded restaurant. Knowing there is a shoulder to sleep on during a long flight.

These simple, predictable moments add up to a satisfying life, punctuated by the occasional highs of graduations and new births, and the rarer lows of loss and grief. And through it all, there is a hand to hold in either possibility.

Love matures the same way in every relationship, not through constant excitement, but through faithful presence. The same is true of our relationship with Christ.

New birth can feel like a gradual sunrise or a sudden dawn. But once it happens, ordinary time is guaranteed. Most of the Christian life is not lived on the mountaintop. It is lived in the daily rhythms where faith meets real life.

Even Jesus spent far more years in the ordinary rhythms of Nazareth than in the public ministry that changed the world. The greater part of His earthly life was spent in the faithfulness of ordinary days.

Unfortunately, many Christians expect to live on a constant spiritual high. When the excitement fades and faith begins to feel ordinary, they assume something is wrong. Yet the loss is often not in God's presence but in our expectations. The church in Ephesus had not abandoned truth or service. They had simply allowed devotion to continue without the affection that once animated it. As the book of Revelation puts it, they had “forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). The answer is not to chase a new emotional experience but to rediscover the beauty of faithful love expressed in ordinary days.

I like this quote from Oswald Chambers:

“Drudgery is the touchstone of character. Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times of inspiration.”

So, here are a few guidelines to enjoy and make the most of ordinary time:

Be present. Sometimes we are striving for the next high, and we miss the blessing of the moment. Stay faithful, even in the tiniest details. Because the tiny stitches make a beautiful tapestry. Look up. See the face of the One who loves you. Jesus is the hand that is always there to hold on to, so enjoy His presence. Most importantly, choose love, because it is a repeated choice.

Loved this? Real Happiness takes you deeper. This a six-week journey through the Sermon on the mount, discovering the surprising, upside-down joy Jesus offers for ordinary days.

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