Ending Well

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Hebrews 11:20-22)

I am acutely aware at the moment of something I’ve observed quite often in the lives of others: it is hard to end well. It is hard to let go. And no one ever has as much control as they might hope over the circumstances that bring the end they must face.
There are all sorts of endings we must face, and it begins quite early on. The end of diapers as we graduate to being fully potty-trained. The ends of school years, eventually graduating from grade 8, then grade 12, then perhaps other forms of schooling after that. The end of living at home. The end of relationships. The end of single life. The end of jobs, houses, and cities as moves fling us to and fro through life’s middle-years. Eventually we come to the end of someone’s life: a mother, father, sibling, friend. We come to retirement. We come to an empty nest, the end of our family home, we downsize. Eventually we come to the end of driving, independent living, good and dependable health. Until eventually we come to the end of our own life.
The early parts of life teach us that life is a journey of growing up and growing into-a journey of gaining and earning friends, skill, strength, knowledge, wealth, influence, and control. But that often causes us to miss the countermovement at work underneath in the form of all these endings and moments of letting go. It is similar to the waves on an ocean that come in quite visibly on the surface, bringing energy, sound, and a living quality of vitality to the experience. But what we cannot see is what lies underneath-the undertow, the countermovement, the waves that go back out and keep the sea from swallowing up the land. These waves underneath are the movement of release and erosion: the movement that can suck you under, pull you to your end, claim your life.
So it is. Our life rolls in toward the shore, cresting and breaking at any number of high points with sound and flourish. Underneath the surface, our life continues to be struck by the undertow in the form of endings and loses-but never enough to change our direction until that eventual moment when we reach the shore. Our life peaks, and the movement that dominates our journey is reversed. We then become the waves underneath, retreating from the shore. We interact with the waves sill moving in-celebrating their journey forward of growing up and growing into. But our path is a different one now-a journey marked mostly by endings.
The Christian life is an invitation to pay our first attention to the countermovement of undertow, loss, and letting go, rather than to the movement of gaining and earning. Jesus shows and tells us that we must die before we can live. It is only the one who loses their life who truly finds it.
By faith: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all did this. They did not learn these lessons quickly or early-especially in Jacob’s case-but they did learn them and so were able to end well. They learned to let go and let God even while they lived so that when their end finally came, they did not meet it with bitterness, resentment, cynicism, or defeat. They met it with grace-with words of blessing on their lips for those who would take over their place. They met their end with faith-a faith that no matter what they had gained or lost-God would provide a future and a salvation yet for those who came after.
Let us meet all our endings in this same faith in the God who secures the future and invites us to end with blessing on our lips.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you.
May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you.
May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.