September 24, 2024 Leaving May Be the Way Home
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Leaving May Be the Way Home
32 Now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all whom God has made holy…
36 After he [Paul] said these things, he knelt down with all of them to pray. 37 They cried uncontrollably as everyone embraced and kissed Paul. 38 They were especially grieved by his statement that they would never see him again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.
Acts 20: 31, 36-38, CEB
“Sometimes leaving is the only way home…It makes room for the next thing God wants to do where you left…and where you’re going” (J.D. Walt, Wake-Up Call, June 26, 2024).
In today’s passage the Apostle Paul bids farewell to Ephesus, the church he planted and spent almost three years teaching, mentoring, and building relationships. The people grieved his leaving. Although God was calling Paul to a new place and ministry, it was not before he laid the foundations to all they needed now to continue growing with God and without Paul.
As I think back over my life and career, many a time I see where the Holy Spirit compelled me to leave an organization, a charitable group, or a community for a new place. In each place, I was happy, fulfilled in my work, and experiencing the joy of belonging and sharing loving relationships. In other words, I saw no good reason to depart except for the Spirit’s incessant compelling.
After leaving, I kept in touch with each group. Within three to six months, I heard how each group thrived as those who stepped into my role flourished with fresh energy and ideas. They were growing, as was I in my new place. Had I stayed, I would have been a roadblock for both individuals and groups to grow where God was at work within and among them. (By the way, this same truth works in reverse, when I’m not doing the leaving, but others are. Think about our kids leaving for college, friends moving closer to relatives, or leaders rolling off committees at the end of their term.)
Matthew Henry closed his commentary on this passage, saying, “But this was a comfort to both sides, that the presence of Christ both went with [Paul] and stayed with them [the church at Ephesus].” Leaving, if called to do so, is the only way home, home being heaven and eternity where we are fully sanctified or completed as the person God created us to be.
Reflect: Think about a time when the Spirit compelled you to move on from a place where you were quite happy and experiencing fulfilling relationships and work. How did letting go give you and others the opportunity to grow in faith personally and minister to others?
Pray: Loving God, who is always present and at work in me and through me, help me to stay when I need to stay and to leave when I need to let go to continue on the path you have laid before me to my eternal home. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby
Lay Leader