A New Chapter

    I like reading books. It is bittersweet when you end a book because that story has ended. However, a new story can begin. Just like our lives have different chapters.

   If you know me, you know I love reading books. I have quite the library at home of many different genres. I love seeing where the author is going to take the characters. I like finding out how some people have grown in God. There is only one real problem I have found with books I enjoy reading: I want to find out what is going to happen, but I also don't want the book to end...

   Many of the authors whose books I read are very good writers. They are so good at keeping me in suspense till the very end. Yet, when the book ends it is bittersweet. I then know what happens to all the characters, but I am no longer in that story. That story has ended and with that story the connection to the characters in the story are gone too.

   Yet, even in the bitterness of that story ending, I realize a new story can begin. I can meet new characters, go to a new world, and find a new story must waiting for me.

   This is sometimes how our lives work. We open many new chapters in life: going to school for the first time, trying a new activity, our first job, what we do after we graduate, marriage, our first child, etc. We are creatures of habit though. We enjoy doing things we know. We enjoy our comfort zones. Sometimes we may not understand why God closes a door in our lives. We may even say "things were going so well Lord. Why did you take that away from me?" 

   Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." God, in his infinite knowledge, knows what is best for us. He knows when it is time for us to stay and when it is time for us to go. We can either continue to look back as Lot's wife did, or we can press on as Paul implored us to do in Philippines 3:14. One chapter in life may be closing but we can choose our attitude about our new chapters in life. What will your attitude be about your new chapter in life?