Jumping the Shark

May 22, 2009

Today's Reading: 2 Samuel 19-20 and Mark 13

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the phrase that serves as the title of this devotional, it is one that you need to watch a lot of television to become familiar with.

If you are familiar with TV, then you may have noticed that shows inevitably go bad. In other words, there comes a time where the show can do nothing more with the characters then they have already done, and the audience also loses interest.

Usually it is one particular episode. The whole reason that we have this expression comes from Happy Days, on an episode where the Fonz literally jumps over a shark on water-skis. I’m sure the episode is the product of the successful movie Jaws, and Fonzie makes the jump in his leather jacket, despite the fact that leather is ruined in water. I guess Fonz was so cool that he never fell.

Most shows jump the shark after an episode that promises to be very good. For example, when a family has a baby. Think Family Ties, Growing Pains, and Mad about You. It just kills a show.

For some reason, I thought of this phrase when I read about David after Absalom. Here was a man who had experienced the ultimate blow of losing his kingdom, and fortunately gained it back. He wasn’t exactly happy, and Joab kept telling him to cheer up.

I always imagined David walking back into Jerusalem, which will be full of celebration. While confetti is showering and people are cheering, David wears a frown.

He probably didn’t feel like living after that, completely jumping the shark. I’m certain there are those reading this who probably feel like they have jumped the shark, and that the glory days have passed them by, like the Bruce Springsteen song.

Fortunately, our lives are not television shows where one singular act causes the whole thing to come down. The problem is we can’t see the whole show. I think all of us would like our life to end at the most strong moment, but the truth is that it does not.

Life goes on, and sometimes it feels as though we live in the “all downhill from here” stage. Should we simply stop living life simply because the best part is over? On the contrary, for all we know, the best is yet to come. Then our supposed “jump the shark” moment, could end up being just a bad episode.