when one chapter ends... another one begins...
I developed a love for reading about 5 years ago when I began to have nothing but free time on my hands. I don't know why I never took the opportunity to read when I was younger, but it just seemed boring. Like maybe I could do something better, more exciting with my time. Little did I know that between book covers I could find an incredible adventure. And once I began reading on a consistent basis, I would find myself getting so wrapped up in books that I would inevitably be sad when I turned the last page.
Life is a unique book. A book where pages keep getting added and we can't read ahead. We can't skip a chapter or rush to the end to see the outcome. In fact, we really don't even know how long the book is. We can't read the synopsis on the back cover to decide if it's worth our time and effort. Life is a book full of unwritten chapters that we get to read as they are being written. Some chapters are great, others are difficult to get through, and I have found myself sitting on the last page as the final words are being written before the next one starts.
I shared a while back about my joy and hesitation of becoming a parent. About how excited I am to start this new journey but how I'm also mourning the one that's coming to an end. It seemed to be taking forever. It seemed like I still had a lot of time left and would be able to adjust accordingly. But days quickly turned into months, and the time has come. One day left, and this chapter comes to a close. One more day and a few final words. That's all there's room for.
It's okay to mourn the chapter you're closing out as you begin a new one. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it's necessary. Sometimes we catch ourselves trying so hard to hang out in those previously written pages because well, it's what we know. It's what we've grown accustomed to. And we understand that with a simple page turn, we face the unknown. New challenges lie before us and there is not a certain way to prepare for what's to come. After all, we're simply making assumptions at this point. All we know is that we don't really know, and so we're afraid to flip the page. Afraid to move past the chapter we have come to know and love into a chapter that may or may not be better than the last. And ironically enough, it can be tempting to hang out in the difficult chapters because we've grown comfortable with our circumstances and because any sort of change is hard.
But I've learned the value of new chapters. Of the fact that God keeps writing, and when we hand Him the pen, He finds a way to make the next chapter better than we could have ever expected. Sure, it will be full of twists and turns and things we never anticipated. It will certainly be an adventure that includes new characters and new story lines, but each page holds a new promise. Each page holds new opportunities. And each page is full of lessons to be learned. Lessons that will draw us closer to God and help us understand Him in a different way. Lessons that will change our lives, make them better, and one day we'll look back and wonder why we were ever afraid of moving forward into that new chapter. Our book wouldn't be complete without out it. In fact, we can't even imagine it any other way. And as we flip back through the chapters and are reminded of what all God has done, we come to understand that He really does know what He's doing. He has all along.
"Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." - Psalm 139:16
Life is a unique book. A book where pages keep getting added and we can't read ahead. We can't skip a chapter or rush to the end to see the outcome. In fact, we really don't even know how long the book is. We can't read the synopsis on the back cover to decide if it's worth our time and effort. Life is a book full of unwritten chapters that we get to read as they are being written. Some chapters are great, others are difficult to get through, and I have found myself sitting on the last page as the final words are being written before the next one starts.
I shared a while back about my joy and hesitation of becoming a parent. About how excited I am to start this new journey but how I'm also mourning the one that's coming to an end. It seemed to be taking forever. It seemed like I still had a lot of time left and would be able to adjust accordingly. But days quickly turned into months, and the time has come. One day left, and this chapter comes to a close. One more day and a few final words. That's all there's room for.
It's okay to mourn the chapter you're closing out as you begin a new one. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it's necessary. Sometimes we catch ourselves trying so hard to hang out in those previously written pages because well, it's what we know. It's what we've grown accustomed to. And we understand that with a simple page turn, we face the unknown. New challenges lie before us and there is not a certain way to prepare for what's to come. After all, we're simply making assumptions at this point. All we know is that we don't really know, and so we're afraid to flip the page. Afraid to move past the chapter we have come to know and love into a chapter that may or may not be better than the last. And ironically enough, it can be tempting to hang out in the difficult chapters because we've grown comfortable with our circumstances and because any sort of change is hard.
But I've learned the value of new chapters. Of the fact that God keeps writing, and when we hand Him the pen, He finds a way to make the next chapter better than we could have ever expected. Sure, it will be full of twists and turns and things we never anticipated. It will certainly be an adventure that includes new characters and new story lines, but each page holds a new promise. Each page holds new opportunities. And each page is full of lessons to be learned. Lessons that will draw us closer to God and help us understand Him in a different way. Lessons that will change our lives, make them better, and one day we'll look back and wonder why we were ever afraid of moving forward into that new chapter. Our book wouldn't be complete without out it. In fact, we can't even imagine it any other way. And as we flip back through the chapters and are reminded of what all God has done, we come to understand that He really does know what He's doing. He has all along.
"Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." - Psalm 139:16
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