Recently I have begun watching the new Netflix series ‘One Day’. I’ve not finished it yet but, having read the book on which it is based, I kind of know what happens. It’s receiving good reviews and proving hugely popular, not least, I suspect, amongst those of my own age who, having left university at around the same time as the principal protagonists, can relate particularly well to some of what they experienced back then when mobile phones were a novelty.
The drama revolves around Emma Moreley and Dexter Matthew, their lives being recounted through the events that take place on a single day, July 15th, of each successive year. There is some bad language and some other less than wholesome scenes but despite these I am enjoying it and can easily see why ‘One Day’ is currently among the most watched television shows in the U.K.
It begins in 1988 when the two first meet on their graduation day, a time when their lives are relatively straightforward and their futures seem full of hope and opportunity, a time which those watching can’t help but remember fondly themselves, recalling how their own lives once seemingly stretched out in front of them, similarly full of promise and opportunity.
Furthermore, Em and Dex are hugely likeable and, because of the quality of both the writing and the acting, this remain the case even when their behaviour, perhaps also like our own, is often unpleasant and sometimes obnoxious. Over the years, their lives, like all of ours, become more complex, complicated by circumstances and their own, in some cases, catastrophic mistakes.
But despite all this you’re still left wanting the very best for them, hoping that one day they’ll be as genuinely happy as they hoped they would be when first they met.
Whether the series stays true to the book, for me at least, remains to be seen, but suffice to say that, given the honesty with which the characters are portrayed, it is far from guaranteed that eventually they will live happily ever after.
Because, as Abraham Lincoln once wrote
‘In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it.’
These may not have been the former US President’s cheeriest words, but I do think that there is some truth in them. Few of us get very far in our lives before problems bring with them a degree of unhappiness.
Even so, our inherent desire for a happy ending remains. And this longing for those we care about to experience joy is not just confined to characters in a fictional TV drama, it extends to those we love in real life too, and, indeed, to we ourselves.
But, as is the case for Em and Dex, real life isn’t always like that. When I worked as a GP, I was all too well aware of the struggles experienced by many of my patients, the sadness felt by those who, in some cases, had suffered for years. And now, working for a missionary organisation, I continue to hear of folk in far off countries whose stories are nothing short of heartbreaking. And just as was the case when I was a doctor, my best efforts now still seem wholly inadequate, unable to ease the very real pain of those who, though I may never actually meet them, are nonetheless people I find myself caring about, people for whom I also want a happy ending.
The problem of suffering, seems then to be ubiquitous. Even so, there is, I believe, a solution.
C.S.Lewis, the one time Oxbridge academic and author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, once wrote of how our longing for something, implies its reality, that though we may not experience it in this life, it remains the case that such a thing must, necessarily, still exist. He said…
‘If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.’
And so I will keep hoping for that other, better, world, one that I consider I have good cause to believe in. Because if good can come out of a man suffering and dying on a cross, then the suffering I see around me, and sometimes, in some small measure, experience myself, is not necessarily without meaning.
And so I believe that the words written by the apostle Paul some 2000 years ago remain true today, that the sufferings of this present time are light and momentary in comparison to the weight of glory that is being produced for us and will will one day be revealed. As such our suffering isn’t meaningless, on the contrary it’s doing something for us as we look, not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen. [Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18]
All of which explains why those dear folk I alluded to earlier, those living thousands of miles away in Ukraine and Far East Russia, are such an inspiration to me. For theirs is a genuine faith, one that does not deny the current darkness but keeps on trusting God despite the ongoing difficulties. Confident that the light one one day dawn, they know that all is well, even when it isn’t, they know that despite their unimaginable hardship, the God of love is no less for them, and whilst, for the time being at least, he may choose not to remove all that currently causes them such distress, they know that one day he will make everything as it should be because that is what he has promised to do.
Because that man who suffered and died on a cross, didn’t stay dead. Three days after dying in our place and atoning for our own catastrophic mistakes, he rose from the grave and thus defeated death. ‘Swallowed up in victory’, death has therefore lost its sting. [1 Corinthians 15:54-55].
And so, though the tears may yet flow, we have a sure and certain hope that the God who raises the dead [2 Corinthians 1:9] will one day resurrect us, a hope that sustains us through even our greatest pain and deepest sorrow as we draw comfort from the promise of Revelation 21:4 that:
One day – there will be no more mourning, no more crying and no more pain.
One day – all our tears will be wiped away and
One day – death will be no more.
And so we need not fear the future but can look forward instead to living happily ever after, together with God.
For such a day will surely come…
One Day.
Related posts:
To read, ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’, click here
To read ‘T.S. Eliot, Jesus and the Paradox of the Christian Life’, click here
To read “Luther and the global pandemic – on becoming a theologian of the cross”, click here
To read “Suffering- A Personal View”, click here.
To read “Why do bad things happen to good people – a tentative suggestion”, click here
To read “Hope comes from believing the promises of God”, click here
To read ‘on the FALLEN and the FELLED’, click here
To read ‘On NOT leaving your comfort zone’, click here
To read ‘Looking back to move confidently forward’, click here
To read ‘The Resurrection – is it just rhubarb?’, click here
To read ‘Faith and Doubt’, click here
Some musings 