The Blessing of Goodbye

The year was 1984, as with every typical summer in North Carolina, it was hot and muggy. I remember it was the last day of school. Mama had just picked me up in her old plant green Vega with no air conditioning.  While gazing out of the rolled down passenger window, I cast one last look at the neat building of my former elementary school. I was heart broken as I had just bid farewell to my sixth grade class.  Turning to my mother in the car, I wailed, “I won’t ever see them again!” Warm and salty tears raced down my cheeks.  Mama, who knows better than anyone how melodramatic I am, breathed out a large sigh.  In an effort to cheer me up, she said “That’s not true. I’m sure you’ll see them again when school starts back.” Frustrated and utterly miserable, I tried to explain, “No, Ma, I’m telling you! Some of them I won’t ever see again…I can feel it!” I stressed. Do you know what?  I was right!  Here we are thirty-two years later and I never saw some of my classmates again. But reality is, that’s the mantra of life, forever changing.

You may have heard the saying, “People are meant to be in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” The older I get, the clearer this statement becomes to me.  Make no mistake, Beloved, it takes strength to say goodbye.  Each one of us has an appointed path of destiny.  And yet, many of us will fail to take our assigned journey.  Why is that you might ask? It takes courage to say farewell to the familiar in order to explore the possibilities of the unknown.  This is precisely why some individuals stay in miserable relationships; shun traveling, pass up career advancement opportunities, etc. They would rather stay unhappy than take the chance of being unsure. Fear of the unknown is crippling for certain individuals. However dearest, it doesn’t have to be!  Job 8:9b NIV says, “Our days on earth are but a shadow.” Just like a fleeting shadow, one moment we have life and the next, we do not.

What the Holy Spirit is helping me to understand is how to embrace the Blessing of Goodbye. Perhaps today’s message will help you do the same.  In other words my friend, instead of focusing on “bye,” let’s learn how to appreciate the “good” of a promising new future.