“Finishing Well” – Sursum Corda News May 2023
Dear Sursum Corda Mamas–
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) John 21:18-19 (ESV)
Beginnings are full of choice, and the pleasure of self-determination, but endings can be full of the glory of God.
I love teaching in the Fall, when the possibilities are wide, and I am steering my little boat on an ocean of hope. I find teaching more of a burden by this time of year, when I have to admit that some dreams are not going to be, and buckle down to make sure some version of “enough” gets done.
Do you, too, find it hard to persevere at the end of a project? Even in little things, finishing requires submission and letting go. To finish an essay (or newsletter!) I have to admit that it will not be all I dreamed. I have to do the grunt work to clean it up, while allowing it to be what it is.
Graduating a daughter was like that, too. There was so much joy, but there was also the reality of facing all the ways her education had not lived up to my perfect ideals.There was a lot of grunt work to get everything tied up and make the various transitions. It required letting go and trusting the Lord.
And yet, and yet…there can be power in this stage, if the one we submit to is God. Sometimes that hard final push–so much less fun than the early stages–is what plants most seeds in students’ hearts. And renews our own hearts. And brings glory to God.
As the Milkweed says in Richard Wilbur’s poem:
… White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod.
What power had I
Before I learned to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall possess the field. …
With love,
Heather (for the Board)
