How many closed chapters do you have in your life? Maybe it was a job, a summer program, school, or a season with a sports team. We all have a lot of them, that’s for sure. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I experience sadness when I think about the closed chapters in my life.
We have another layer of closed chapters in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. So many chapters were closed without people even having time to prepare for them to close. That’s really sad.
I have a lot of closed chapters. I was a swim coach for 5 years, bu now that chapter of my life is over. I was a piano teacher for a while, and again, that chapter is over. Probably one of the chapters of my life that I miss the most is my time in college and grad school. College is a unique time where you get to be with your friends all day every day, and you get to have the next few years of your life planned out without having to think about whether or not you’re doing the right thing.
I absolutely love where I am now. But sometimes it makes me sad that I can’t do it all, or that some chapters of my life are over and I’ll never experience them again to the same extent that I did when I was in them.
I’m reminded of the poem “Maud Muller” by John Greenleaf Whitier. I wonder how many of us would say these words ring true in our lives:
God pity them both!
And pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall;
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies
Deeply buried from human eyes;
And, in the hereafter, angels may
Roll the stone from its grave away!”
From “Maud Muller” by John Greenleaf Whitier
How can we find comfort during these situations? Here are my suggestions:
Remember that in Heaven, All Our Hopes Will Be Fully Realized
Recognize that God Has you Right Where He Wants You
Recognize that God is sovereign over all things, even your mistakes
Recognize that your calling is the path right in front of you
Recognize that all of your experiences are what make you you, and God prepared you every step of the way
There will be a lot of closed chapters. C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters writes,
“He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time, which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which [God] has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity or with the Present–either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.”
God cares about our sorrows. He cares about every part of us. Psalm 139 says he knows our inward parts and before we were born he formed us in our mother’s womb. He knows, and he cares. Comfort yourself with Job’s response: “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Let’s stay the course. Let’s do the next right thing. And let’s keep our minds fixed on Jesus. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3
Follow me on Instagram: @christijohnsoncreative
The books I mentioned in today’s episode: Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver and C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Intro/Outro Music: Almost Bliss by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5032-almost-bliss License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
