“‘The end! The end has come
upon the four corners of the land!'”
Ezekiel 7:2b (NIV)
This past weekend Suzanna reminded Wendy and me that it was just a year ago (on Valentine’s Day) that she and I left to go on a glorious seven day cruise. Over the weekend I have been thinking about all that changed in life since we returned from that cruise. Yesterday, as we gathered with our fellow Jesus followers, we were given time during worship to do some journaling. I poured out a list. Here’s a partial list:
- We gave up our long-term dream of renovating 607 Columbus
- We bought a lot and started planning to build a house
- Suzanna finished high school and entered the working world
- Taylor went through a divorce
- Madison became a flight attendant
- Moved to Salt Lake City for a month of training
- Moved to Chicago to work out of O’Hare
- Moved to back to Colorado
- Taylor moved to Scotland to start grad school
- Wendy’s parents moved
- My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
- We broke ground on a new house
- We decluttered 607 Columbus and put it on the market
- Seismic shifts in work, relationships, and directions
- Robbery of my hotel room: Computers, electronics, photos all stolen
- 607 Columbus sold, closed, and packed up after almost a decade.
- Holidays without either Taylor or Madison present
Needless to say, life has felt a bit like shifting sand under our feet. I was reminded again by Ezekiel’s words this morning. The “end has come” for many things in our lives since Wendy and I arrived back in the harbor one year ago. With endings come certain feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, and grief. And yet, I am reminded that God’s Message also tells there is a time for everything under the sun. There is a time for endings and a time for beginnings. There is a time for some things to die away and a time for new things to be born. There is a time for old things pass away and a time for new things come.
Today, I am choosing to embrace both the grief and hope that come with transitions.