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Lessons of LifePeace

Necessary Endings

By May 18, 2023No Comments

We were in Las Vegas last weekend for our son Samuel’s graduation from law school. Two days later we celebrated our son Josh’s twenty-first birthday. On the same day, we enjoyed a special gifting–giving time for Mother’s Day. Necessary endings and beginnings are the fabric of life.

Being in an Airbnb house together for four days with five of our seven now adult children, was a celebration of past accomplishments, amusing stories, and the joy of just being in each other’s company. It had been years since we had all been living together in the same house for a few days. And then it ended. Necessary endings.

Life is full of beginnings and endings. The journey of life could be defined as necessary endings that open new beginnings.

Today, I was thinking about the endings, beginnings, and transitions of life under the rubric of Jesus’ words, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Jesus is speaking of the priority of the most noble cause. In effect He is saying, “if you seek the most noble of all causes first (the Kingdom of God and His righteousness), I (God) will line up all the other secondary causes for you.”

It occurred to me that peace only accompanies an ending when we are convinced of a noble beginning. You can’t enjoy an ending without the expectation of a new and good beginning. I would argue that the only true way to happiness in the reality of endings (some endings being very painful) is to make the Kingdom of God your primary pursuit. When we make the Kingdom of God our great quest, endings take on new meaning.  Necessary endings are transformed when we know that the hand of God is at work.

Last weekend was a necessary ending for Samuel, for Josh, for Liz and me. But it would have been incomplete without the necessary expectations that by seeking first the Kingdom of God, the new beginnings that follow will be even better.

Pastor Steve