Right now, I'm in this season of purging with three small kids. I'm constantly going through closets and toy bins. And when I sit down to do this, I get a little sad. I think about Conley’s sentimental things, or Carter’s shoes that he’s outgrown, or Mary Grace’s newborn onesies. I get a little sad that these seasons of our lives are ending. Even if some of those seasons were hard—like those sleepless nights of the newborn stage.

But you know what? We experience this often. I get really sentimental when something's over. Whether I loved a season or not, I find that there’s something about endings that makes it hard to let go.

I worked at the YMCA for three years. During that time, I worked so hard and so many hours to the point of burnout. So, when this season of my life was ending—when I was leaving a job that my heart had not been in for a while, where I was working every night, every weekend, every week on the holidays—I still felt sad. And I still felt sad even though I was going to a job where I was going to have some balance. I was so excited about where I was going, and yet still sad it was over—still sad to leave behind those relationships, and that season of life, and everything that it represented.

Life can be like that. Endings can be hard and sad. But you know what? Endings make new beginnings possible. Endings make that new thing that God is doing in your life possible.

So, if you're going to live a life true to you and step into this bigger, better, more awesome life that God has for you, you have to be willing to let go of what's behind and what’s no longer right for you.

Friend, you've got to be willing to let some things go. If all we focus on are the endings, we’re going to be sad and filled with regret. But I don't want you to miss the truth of endings: Endings make new beginnings possible. God has something for you, but He cannot put it in your hands until He takes something out.

Isaiah 43:19 (NIV) says:

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Journal Question: Write down an area of your life where God might be urging you to let go of something.