Life Moves on, But God's Love Remains!

 

Summer is close upon us.

I only have one week left of classes and then finals week. After that I will be going home for a month to spend time with family. That part I am excited about, but not everything about this time of year do I get excited about.

I have discovered that the end of another school year can also mean the end of special friendships, too. And it makes me just a little sad.

It will be nice to have another year of school put behind me, but I also know that summer will be different.

I won’t be seeing the same people each day.

I will still be able to see some of these people, but some of them I may never see again.

Being in college is an interest stage of life.

Each year as the school year closes, there are some friends who graduate. Some friends move on to a different school, some friends move back to their home town, some friends just change.

 Even the ones who do come back for the next year, are going to be busier or have other things going on that cause our paths to cross much less.

Sometimes it means that some of my best friends of that year, move on in life and become a friend of the past. And then I have to remember to treasure the memories that I made, yet not hold on to the past and rather move forward, willing to have new adventures and new friends and new opportunities in the next year.

Things won’t be the same next year.

Maybe some of my best friends of this year will no longer be my closest friends for next year, but that’s how life goes.

We grow up and move on in life. People change. Life changes. I can’t hold on to the past. I can only treasure the memories and look forward to making new ones.

It is hard for me to think that some of the people that I have spent the most time with this year, may be people that I will hardly see next year, but I also know that if God gave me those friends for this past, year he can give me new friends for next year.

God has never failed to provide me with good friends for each season. Some friends are meant to be there for only a short season and then there are others that I know will last for a life time; like the one I have had since childhood or the ones who have stuck by my side through the last three years of college.

Next year I will be living with mostly different girls. Next year I will be making new friends. Next year I will have a different job. Next year will have new challenges and new adventures, new obstacles to face.

Next year will have a different story, a different song, a different tune.

But one thing never changes and that is God. God will still be with me. He will still be faithful.

I have learned that life is always changing and so are people. I have learned that I will lose friends and sometimes that really hurts.

But I am also learning to love people no matter how short a time a friendship may last.

It is easy for me to grow a hard shell around my heart in order to protect my heart from hurting once again. I tell myself that if I am tough and have a hard heart than it won’t hurt so bad when another friend moves on.

But that is not love.

Christ loved me even while I was still dead in my sin. Christ died for me. Christ forgave me. Christ gave me the gift of eternal life.

Love is sacrifice. Love will hurt. Love is giving of myself to another no matter the cost, no matter the pain.

Loving others isn’t easy and isn’t pain free. Love hurts, but just as Christ has loved, I also must love others.

I am learning that if Christ’s love is truly in me than Christ’s love is what should come out of me. So although it is easy to want to protect my heart from being hurt, from losing yet another friend, I want my heart to be tender and soft.

I am learning its ok to hurt sometimes because that is a part of truly loving others.

I am learning to love as best as I can those who are in my life and although they may not be in my life next year and it may hurt to see them go and I might cry tears every night for weeks, its ok because God never promised that love would be free of pain.

In fact, he promised it wouldn’t be free of pain. But Christ loves me and if I am to abide in his love then I must love others with the love that he has given to me.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8

Next year will not be the same. Next year I may not have the same friends as this year, but I won’t stop loving them.

And I won’t be afraid to make new friends even though the same thing will occur the following year.

Next year will have new pains from new friendships or old ones.

I may cry from missing a friend no longer in my life.

But Christ’s love is in my heart and I cannot close my heart to love because Christ’s love abides in me and so his love is what must flow out of me.

This year’s adventures is coming to a close and summer adventures are near at hand.

I will treasure the memories I have made in the past year, but I look forward to what God has for the year to come.

Good things have come out of the laughter and tears, the pains and heart aches, the joys and sorrows, of this past year.

And because I am confident in the promises of God, I know that he will not fail me in the years to come either.



*Thanks to a friend who allowed me to use her photo and another friend who has inspired the title of this post. ;)