Monday Morning Manna: Finishing a Chapter and Turning a Page

When I read a book that I really love, the end of each chapter causes a mini-disappointment in my mind, as I get closer to the end of the book. Life is similar. I appear to be close to finishing a chapter. A few days ago, I was surprisingly informed that my retirement office was being moved to another building. My current building is being re-painted, re-configured, and re-carpeted. My new office will be smaller, so once again I am downsizing. The last time I moved offices, I shipped twelve boxes of books to the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary. I will likely be shipping several more boxes this time, as well as donating my five hundred books on prayer as a collection to Roberts Library at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, and my nearly two hundred books on missions to the Seminary’s World Mission Center. The worst part of closing this chapter is I will be unable to take numerous file drawers to my new office. I have decided that my future will not include being asked by any institution to teach my course on Prayer, or my course on Discipleship, or my course on Contemporary Evangelism, or any of my Practicums so, in addition to donating books, I am shredding multiple trash bins of notes and documents. Not having computers, my generation kept everything in file folders. While I am disappointed because it appears that I am finishing a life-chapter, I am excited because a new chapter awaits the turning of a page. Bruce Barton, wrote a profound and timely sentence in his best-selling book, “The Man Nobody Knows” – “When you are through changing, you are through.” “Lord, make me to know my end” (Psalm 39:4), but until then, help me adjust to my next chapter.

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.