Summer is coming to an end. To say such a thing in New York is guaranteed to get more gasps than swearing in public. We spend all year looking forward to summer and now it’s ending.
It’s almost enough to send a person into depression. Summer is absolutely perfect in New York!
We don’t just dread the changing of seasons, most of us dread any change. But you don’t have to.
What if you changed the way you look at change? What if instead of thinking about all the things you think you’ll lose, you started looking for all the new opportunities?
Change opens new doors of possibilities you didn’t have before.
We usually don’t look at change that way. We usually fear it because change means something familiar and comfortable is ending.
In my case summer, which is very comfortable, is ending. The changing of seasons comes with a bit of regret for things I wasn’t able to do…I thought I would have more time.
I talk to lots of people who live with a perpetual sense of guilt not just about summer, but about life—the things they ran out of time to do before a season ended.
They live life looking through the rear-view mirror. They stare longingly at all the missed opportunities and relationships, wishing they would have made a different choice. Living like that is a guaranteed way to be depressed.
Do you live that way? Do you spend time looking at the past wishing the present was different? Do you feel like you’ve run out of time? If that’s you I want to tell you with as much love as you’ll receive…Stop it!
The past certainly can give us perspective, but that’s it. You can’t change it. All you have to work with is today. I don’t want you to miss today and all the opportunities it has because you keep looking backwards at the past.
I love what Alexander Graham Bell said…
“When one door closes another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Have you ever found that to be true?
You wish you would have gone to school…
You wish you would have stayed in touch with college friends…
You wish you would have had a child…
You wish you would have taken a trip with your kids…
While we are wishing, we miss the opportunities right in front of us to…
…Learn and grow where we are
…make new friends at church
…love and mentor other children
…spend time with our adult children
Whatever you are regretful about, whatever door you wish was still open for you, I promise you there is another door opening for you. You just have to stop looking in the rearview mirror and start looking forward.
Looking backwards only perpetuates the cycle of regret, causing us to miss more opportunities in the present.
When I was in college a song I heard over and over was “Closing Time.” (Is that song really that old?) There is a line in the song from Semisonic, you probably remember the line… “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
We miss the new beginnings partly because we are so focused on what ended or is about to end. We forget that to experience the joy of the Christmas season, summer has to end. We miss the truth that before God can open a new door He has to close a door…a door that feels safe and comfortable.
What if instead of feeling regretful about the past you started feeling hopeful about the future?
What if instead of dreading the change you started looking for the new opportunities in front of you?
Throughout life you will have lots of doors close and seasons change. But more importantly there will be lots of new doors opening. New things to experience. New friends to make. New adventures to live.
Instead of letting your emotions pump out dread and fear at the next sign of change, what if you trained your emotions to start pumping out expectancy and excitement? What if you looked for the new doors that were opening?
The next time you think a door is closing start looking for the new opportunities, the new friendships, and the new adventures God is opening for you. Choose to nurture expectancy.
