IVP - Strangely Dim

Saying Goodbye

I have never been good at saying goodbye. Part of the reason is probably because my family is very rooted—I grew up in the house that my grandparents built, that my father grew up in, and that I hope my own children will live in (or at least visit). I attended the same elementary and high schools as my grandmother and my father, and my friends remained the same for the first eighteen years of my life. As you can probably imagine, I don’t like change. I like stability. I appreciate rootedness.

But I am in my twenties and very little is certain right now. A year ago, I married my best friend, and Michael and I are still unraveling how to live life as partners, as a team. Friendships continue to morph as our friends accept new jobs or get accepted into new schools and trek across the country to pursue their respective dreams. Job opportunities open and close, and relationships there must be pursued or ended, released or revisited.

And that is why I am writing today. I will be taking a different job in August, and today is my last day at InterVarsity Press. The decision to leave was a difficult one, and my tendency to shy away from change made it even more difficult to choose to go. I love the vision of the company and the ministry that flows from the work that we do in this office. Above all else, I love the people in this publishing house—there are wonderful souls within these walls. The Press has become a home for me, steady in the midst of all of the other changes I have been experiencing in this last year.

But change comes, and I am trying to embrace this one. The job that I am taking in August will simplify my life—instead of a twenty-five minute commute to and from work, I will be walking three minutes to my new office. This job will also give me the opportunity to work on the same campus where my husband and my sister attend school, deepening my relationships with them. I am sad to leave InterVarsity Press, but I am trusting that the Lord has opened this door and will enable me to walk through it well.

I know that it is only one of many changes I have yet to experience in my life, but I also know that there is one source of rootedness in my life that cannot be moved: Christ himself. He is unchanging, immovable, unshakable. He is the cornerstone that cannot be removed, he is the vine that will never be uprooted, his is the kingdom that cannot be shaken. Christ is the constant that I cling to as I move into these changes, the one who leads me through that which is easily shaken in this world.

So wherever you are in life, and whatever change you are inevitably experiencing, God’s peace to you. I would receive the same blessing from you as we move forward into the change that must come. May we cling closely to Christ as we embrace whatever he brings our way.