Nought may endure but mutability

"My experience has taught me that it isn't the distance that creates the difficulty. The difficulty is because we continue to maintain those relationships as if they are unchanged."

That quote comes from the comments section of my friend's blog. The friend is moving to Texas to start a whole new life with his family, and is struggling with the idea that the relationships he's made here can't stay the same.

Yesterday was a send-off morning in our Sunday School class. All four of our shepherding couples have been led by God, independently of one another, to follow Him in other directions. For three of those couples, that means following Him somewhere else in the greater Denver community. I found it especially challenging to say goodbye to these couples. They're not really going anywhere, so we can call them up whenever we feel like getting together. But they're leaving our community and they will invest themselves in new communities. And we will continue to invest ourselves in the lives of those who join our community. So, even though we're no further apart physically, and even though we will always be friends, those relationships will never be the same again, even if I do call them up to get together now and then. And that is the really uncomfortable part of saying goodbye.

I am thankful to Than's friend for the idea that he expressed in Than's comment section. If I acknowledge that the relationships are changing (and will continue to change) and if I accept them as the new relationships that they are, will it make the transition easier?

If I think of it down the road, I'll let you know.

"Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim." -Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Man's yesterday may never be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability." -Percy Bysshe Shelley