THE END OF A THING

Have you ever gotten down to the very last bite of your favorite candy bar, the last spoonful of the ice cream you love or the final sip of that savory cup of fresh brewed coffee? This is the perfect time by the way for you to go and get your own cup and come right back and read on!

Getting to the end of something we take pleasure in and letting go of what we hold dear is an arduous process. For some of us who may err on the side of being stubborn (I like to refer to it as strong-willed) it can take a lot more for us to come to the end of ourselves. We fight tooth and nail to hold onto what is either comfortable or what we can control.

Fear keeps our grip steady and our knuckles white. At some point or another we will let go. It is not a matter of if but when. We will all reach a point in our lives where circumstances will be out of our control and will become more than we can bear.

While in the midst of the trauma with my son I recall all the people with good intentions who would make the following comment:

"God will never put more on you than you can handle." Oh really, I thought. Well, I'll tell you right now "I'VE GOT MORE ON ME THAN I CAN HANDLE!!!" What now?

When I should have let go of my rope I didn't. I was too proud to let go. God warns us in the book of Proverbs chapter 16:18 that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Destruction came...just like He said it would.

It wasn't until then that I finally let go of my rope. When people say that to me now I tell them I respectfully disagree. In my experience it seems God does exactly that at times; He puts more on us than we are capable of handling so that we will turn to Him, let go of our ropes and admit that without Him we simply cannot do it.

I recently ran across a scripture in Ecclesiastes 7:8 that brings me great hope:

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning. When something ends something new can begin. And it may just be more beautiful than you could have imagined.