If It's Not Okay, Then It's Not the End

Do you feel like you’ve reached the end of something? A relationship? A marriage? A dream? Your career?

Does it feel like all is lost?

If so, take heart. You are in the company of every hero of every classic story ever told. 

From the B.C. era Epic of Gilgamesh to the Old Testament to the Gospels, there is a timeless narrative that features the same plot with remarkably similar moments along the way. 

A hero starts in the ordinary world. He or she receives a call to action and launches out on a journey. They encounter enemies and allies. They eventually come face to face with an enemy they must defeat or die trying. Along the way, they inevitably reach a point where all seems lost. 

Every great story follows the same pattern, almost without fail. 

In the Old Testament, Pharaoh's army is about to slaughter the Israelites trapped by an impassable sea. In Star Wars, a trash compactor threatens to crush Luke Skywalker and his friends. In the New Testament, the disciples grieve when the Savior they put their hope in succumbs to death on a cross.

Joseph Campbell pointed out this classic story structure in his 1949 book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. It was popularized later by screenwriter Christopher Vogler who said: “The ideas are older than the pyramids, older than Stonehenge, older than the earliest cave painting.”

Why do these patterns repeat so consistently in every great narrative that has endured throughout the ages? I believe it’s because the Divine has wired every human being to respond to this story. 

No matter our age, race, or culture, it’s our story.

We all go on journeys throughout life. We all encounter struggles. We all despair when all is lost.

But is it?

Because the classic stories never stop there. 

Another pattern that’s repeated in every story is this: Something shifts, something miraculous happens. 

God parts the sea, allowing the Israelites to escape their pursuers. Luke Skywalker and his friends escape the trash compactor at the last second. Jesus appears alive to his followers outside the tomb.

Every classic story has an “all is lost” moment. And it is always followed by salvation.

After overcoming his adversary, the hero returns home with a newfound knowledge and wisdom. The Israelites start a new nation. Luke Skywalker and his friends now know they can defeat the evil Empire. Jesus’s disciples experience a radical new movement, a whole new beginning that will alter the course of history forever.  

I’m not saying that the resurrection of Christ is just some other myth like Star Wars. As Christians, we believe it is an historical fact. But it is the fulfillment of all the other myths that came before and have come since. As C.S. Lewis put it:

“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths: i.e., the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call 'real things'.”

As seen in all the great stories, God’s radical message is this: In the end, there is no end. 

When everything seems at its absolute worst, that means salvation is right around the corner.

We see it in Revelation 21:3-4:

“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.’”

The old order of everything—your failed marriage, your lost loved one, your dashed dream—will pass away. 

What awaits? We don’t know for sure, but we know it’s prepared by a God who loves us and wills our happiness and peace.

In her song “Fool’s Gold”, Sandra McCracken sings:

If it's not okay

Then it is not the end

And this is not okay

So I know this is not the end

When you have reached your “all is lost” moment, things are not okay. It’s no use pretending they are. But it is not the end. If the story God has put in all our hearts is any indication, then it is the moment before resurrection and a whole new beginning you could never have imagined.