The End of One Thing is the Beginning of Another
The end of one thing is the beginning of another.
It is inevitable that what we know today, have today, love today, and experience today……is salient. It is changing. Morphing. Unavoidably unable to maintain or remain. What is here today will inevitably be gone tomorrow….. what a sad way to end a year. What an unpleasant sounding reach.
And yet……..
For some, it is wonderful to read the words in the previous paragraph. There are hearts that long for a change from where they are to where they hope to be. For others, they long for a repeat of the joys they’ve known this year.
So this year I want to end the year with a reach that shakes our shoulders and wakes us up. Let’s wake up to the reality of pending endings and the hope of needed beginnings.
The end of one thing is the beginning of another.
The end of 2023 brings finite conclusions to some aspects of our lives. It is finishing. It will be over. And yet our calendar is graciously set up in such a way as to offer us a new beginning (of sorts) as an immediate response to a final ending. 2023 is almost finished. However you have used the 525,950 minutes of 2023 are winding down to the last curve on the track and about to cross the finish line.
BUT — 2024 is about to hand you more minutes.
We will have 525,950 more minutes on this new horizon of time? Some of us will, some of us won’t, for not all of us will have all the minutes of the next year. It is not known to us, but the One who made us knows full well. Will I have all those minutes in 2024? Will you?
And so doesn’t it make complete sense logically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally to reach for more of HIM as we live out our God-given minutes?
He knows what is ahead. He knows what you’ve endured. He knows what you are capable of and what your “assignments” will be this upcoming year. He knows your losses and yet He keeps increasing your gains. You’re still breathing air……there is more to accomplish.
What your hands attend to might be different than you would have hoped for….but what if it’s exactly in line with what Heaven is working to accomplish.
What your arms will hold might be something you’ve dreamed of holding. Or it might be something you want to put down. But what if it’s exactly in line with what Heaven is hoping will be carried?
What you receive might or might not be in line with what you asked for, dreamed of, or even prayed for. But what if it is exactly in line with what the Father’s heart knows is needed.
This past year has been grueling for some.
This past year has been beautiful for some.
Our family has endured time apart from one another, which has been very hard for all our hearts, but then we enjoyed a wedding on a mountain in Scotland. We’ve prayed for an adoption that has not arrived yet, rejoiced over the arrival of a pregnancy, grieved over the loss of that sweet baby, and now, this last week of the year our family is finally together again. We are beside ourselves over the joy of breathing the same air under the same roof, around the same table. We are indulging in the sounds of conversations and laughter, dreams shared for days ahead, and challenges we get to tackle together. But the losses and the absences we’ve endured help us care MORE for those who are also facing loss and absence . We know, through experience, the days of loss come to an end, and then the days of m-o-r-e arrive. It is the way our Father in Heaven lays out the process of life; living, growing, changing, increasing us sometimes even through painful losses. He gives. He takes away. He gives again. And He watches to see how we will respond. Will we cling to tightly to what we have or live too carelessly with what we’ve been given. He adjusts what surrounds us for an unbelievably intense and powerful purpose.
He longs to grow us.
He wants us to cling to HIM in the getting. He aches for us to cling to HIM in the letting go. He hopes we will hold on to HIM in the losses. He knows HE has an infinite number of ways to reach towards us……..His joy is immeasurable when He sees that we eagerly reach for more of HIM……no matter whether it is the end of something or the beginning of a new thing.
Dear one, our Abba is found steady and sure in the beginnings ——after all He is the One who brings them. He is also the One who makes all things new. And then, our Father is found just a steady and sure in the endings we face. HE IS OUR STEADY. He is faithful.
He never leaves us (even though sometimes we back away from Him).
He never turns away (even though we sometimes turn from Him).
He never ignores us (even though…..).
He never withdraws His love for us.
He never withholds what is best, never ignores our tears.
He is the One who decided, long before we took our first breath of the air He provides us, He is the One who decided —
The end of one thing will mean the beginning of a new thing.
The end of life here will mean the beginning of life eternal. We get to choose whether that “life eternal” is lived out in the Heavenlies or not. We get to choose.
The end of a good thing in our lives here does not have to mean that all is lost. It could instead, by the good hand of God, mean that the beginning of a new goodness is on the horizon.It might not be as good….but it can be it’s own new goodness in our lives. It is actually possible that sometimes it might be a better goodness. We get to choose.
This past year I watched Francesca lay her unborn treasured baby into the arms of the Father, against her wishes, for it was not what she wanted. But through healthy grief, physical pain, and honest emotions — she experienced the end of her pregnancy. And then I watched her reach-for-more of her Abba…..as she held onto Him with both hands and asked for Him to define her horizons. And she’s given me permission to share here….that the Father has already whispered into her womb the beauty that is to be hers during the minutes of 2024. :)
For with God nothing that is of His heart is ever, ever lost. It is only held in His care as He prepares for what is about to begin.
He holds it all. He knows what to do with everything. He is always working things together for the purpose of what is good and right and excellent and praiseworthy — He is worthy of our praise.
He is the One who manages the details of what will end and He is the One who authors what is beginning. Our work, dear ones, is to jump into His cart and hold tight. He will carry us all to where He has purposed in His great heart for us to be.There will be many endings. But there will be more beginnings than endings.
How can I know this?
Well, we began with a beginning here on earth……and we will have a day that is our earthly end……but then…….a new beginning will carry us HOME.
May the ending of your 2023 compel you forward in the most unexpected ways to grab hold of the new beginnings held in the minutes of 2024. May we remember that God reached for us first……and His joy is immeasurable when we hold onto Him tightly in every ending and reach for MORE OF HIM in every new beginning.
