Better at the End - Pt 3

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV).

For every “time to seek,” there is “a time to lose” (v. 6). Learning to end well, to let go well, is one of the most neglected subjects in our Western Christian discipleship. There’s little teaching and guidance for navigating these tricky waters. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Christian leaders frequently struggle to step out of leadership, and churches struggle with leadership transitions, and Christians, in general, frequently experience confusion and disorientation at the end of various seasons of life and ministry. But God will help us. One way to prepare for our “time to lose,” and help others do the same, is to intentionally pray about it. God can make our transition out of a season uniquely powerful in glorifying Jesus. My favorite model in Scripture is John the Baptist. At the end of his season of call, he said as he watched his great ministry eclipsed by the bright morning star, “Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease” (cf. John 3:29-30). Those words, as much as anything John ever said, revealed the heart that made him so great. He understood what his life was about. The beginning of his ministry was about Jesus and, even more so, its end. And that is what every end of every season of our lives is all about: the increase of Jesus in our decrease. So, whether it is a season of life or the end of it as we know it, there will be a God-given time to exit every role we enter. Some endings will feel sweet and clear; some will feel bitter and confusing. Therefore, it requires a different kind of wisdom to end well than to begin well. It demands Spirit-wrought humility and Spirit-empowered faith to trust God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness in those transitions. We must prepare for these moments or, better, we must ask God to prepare us, so that as each moment ends, we will say with John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The ending is always better than the beginning.