Living Without Suspense

“He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.”

                                –Samuel Johnson

I love a book that has great suspense. Not necessarily the kind of suspense that chills and scares you, but the kind that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Will the hero get the girl? Will the story wrap up with a Happy Every After? Will good overcome evil? (Yes, I am a romantic at heart!). As a reader, there is something completely satisfying about enjoying a book while lost in the suspense of the story. As an author, I love nothing more than to find a way to create and wave that suspense through the characters.

In real life though, I prefer to live without the suspense. I don’t want to be tense all the time, looking for that unnamed evil behind every corner. I have no desire to live my life in fear of the outcome of every potential decision. And, when I see evil in the world, I do not want to wonder if that evil will overcome in the end.

Fortunately for us, we do not live in a world of long term suspense. Certainly, we do not know the outcome to every event. We may have to worry whether the person who always does the right thing will be rewarded. And we know that every situation may not have a happily, ever after ending. But, we do not have to worry about evil winning when all is said and done.

You see, that battle has already been won. Beginning in a humble manger and ending on a cross, we live a daily life under the promise of everlasting goodness and love knowing that God has already defeated the ultimate evil. Yes, that evil still has its opportunity to wreak havoc on our world, to destroy the beautiful and corrupt the disconnected, and to cause us pain. But the glorious news ends with the destruction of that evil and the everlasting promise of eternal peace. That news is what gives us the certainty to live without the fear of suspense.