Important Note: For the past 92 weeks, I have been writing blogs for Guideposts Magazine’s website OurPrayer. This is my last blog for them. It has been a great honor and pleasure to write these blogs. As of August 1, 2011, Guideposts will discontinue all of the OurPrayer blogs. Many people have told me that they follow my blogs every week, so I have decided to continue to write the blogs and will have them posted on my website. Starting next week on August 1, you can read my blogs by going to www.joycarol.com and clicking on “Joy’s Weekly Blog.”

This is my last blog for Guideposts’ OurPrayer website: a kind of sad ending for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the blogs each week and didn’t want this meaningful experience to end. Most of us have at least some resistance to endings and change. Our minds like the security that comes with our long-held ideas and attitudes. But endings are a part of the fabric of life, whether we like it or not. Life has stages and seasons and in order for anything to have a new beginning, old things have to come to an ending. At times we are forced to end something, to let go of it, to leave it behind, in order to move to the next stage of life. Growth actually demands that we do that.

Sometimes endings can be a critical factor in our lives. There may be bad habits that ought to be relinquished, unhealthy relationships that should be let go of, too many commitments that should be ended, and life stages that should come to an end in order to open up the space for the next one. At times endings may be the beginning of a whole new life.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote, ‘Great is the art of the beginning, but greater is the art of ending.’ Yes, there really is a time and a season for everything. But often we get stuck for a long time and don’t have the strength or courage to let go of our attachments.

However we may feel about endings, we know that to get to a new level, a new tomorrow, or the next step, something has to end. If we have the ability to end things, we won’t stay stuck, we can become who we are meant to be. So as I end my wonderful relationship of writing blogs for Guideposts OurPrayer website, I want to remember that this ending – like all endings – offers me the chance to re-evaluate things. It gives me the opportunity to practice letting go so I can clear the decks for a new beginning.

Beloved Giver of Endings and Beginnings, we thank you for your loving presence as we face endings and beginnings. We turn to you asking for courage when we need to end things. Help us to be open to new beginnings on the horizon. May we remember that Jesus showed us a way to transform our endings into meaningful beginnings. Amen.

Joy Carol

www.joycarol.com