Beginnings

 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  Revelation 22:13

So often, we dread endings. Ending can mean pain, heartache, and loss. There is so much in our life that we don't want to end, but it does. Oftentimes, something ends and there is nothing we can do about it. It is beyond our control. Death, divorce, and unexpected tragedies. We see "the end" as being permanent. We can never envision us getting past it. And so we go on living in our endings. Yet God would have us understand that out of our endings, even the most painful of them, He can bring a new beginning.

More than 30 years ago an ending came to my life that I didn't seek and didn't want. I should say endings because I faced not only the ending of my marriage, but of my ministry, and of just about every aspect of life as I had known it. I was crushed and reeling from all that had taken place. In the midst of all this, I found myself on our district campground. A campground mostly abandoned through that time of the year. In desperation I phoned my pastor and in despair, terrified that this end would be permanent, asked him what was I to do if none of what had happened was reversed? I remember him saying, "You'll have to make a new life for yourself." I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want a new life. I wanted what had been my old life back. I was trapped in my "ending."

I never got that old life back. Separation led to divorce in my marriage, and ministry appeared over. There were more than a few people who, whether with a good spirit or not, were willing to confirm that I would not see my ministry restored. If this was my new life, if this was the unfolding of His beautiful plan for me, I wanted to opt out. I couldn't see how He was making a new beginning for me in any of it. But He was.

My pastor had said that I'd need to make a new life for myself, but he didn't mean that I'd do so on my own. He meant that through the work of the Father, a new life, a new beginning would be given to me. I would discover that He really does give beauty for ashes, even the most ugly of ashes. He never ceases to specialize in raising to life that which is dead. Dead hope. Dead dreams. Dead futures. I couldn't see it then, but that campground, as desolate as it was and felt, was the place of my "new beginning." If we will trust Him, obey Him, keep going step by step with Him, He will make a new beginning out of that which seems to be a complete ending. That's what He did for me. I didn't stay at that campground as He began to open a series of doors, all of them leading to restoration. Not just the restoration of my ministry calling, but a restoration of hope, joy, and deep expectations in Him. Here, all these years later, the doors continue to open and the restoration continues to take place.

I have found life can have so many beginnings and that those beginnings can happen in the darkest of places. Maybe you or a loved one are in such a place now. May you know and experience that He is Lord at what appeared to be the end, and He is Lord at what is now your new beginning. He is Lord over all that will take place as you journey on in new beginning after new beginning and all the endings that may take place along the way. He is the Alpha and Omega, and what He speaks in the second part of verse 6 is powerfully true: "To all who are thirsty, I will give the springs of the water of life without charge." Your beginning right now may be the most desert-like wilderness you've ever known. He is the ruler there. For you He will pour out His water of life without charge. Drink, because He knows the end He will bring from this beginning. All you need do is trust....obey.....and drink to the full.

Blessings,
Pastor O