Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
John 12:23-24
I used to do a really weird thing… I used to hate saying goodbye whenever I left a party or social gathering. I just thought saying goodbye was kind of awkward; I’d rather just slowly disappear rather than announcing my departure to everyone. It wasn’t until recently that I realized why I hate saying goodbye; it’s because I usually don’t want that experience to end. Saying goodbye is acknowledging the loss or death of that moment. I think I subconsciously thought that if I don’t say goodbye, it doesn’t really have to end. But the downside of this strange habit is that I don’t free myself up to receive the next moment since I’m still holding onto previous ones. In some ways, I need to say goodbye to let God do something new in me.
This may or may not be common knowledge, but the word “goodbye” is a contraction of the Old English phrase, “God be with ye.” What do we need to give to God so that God can allow something new to be produced? May we say “goodbye” to old chapters so we can say “hello” to new ones.
