The Long Goodbye

 Grieving is the long goodbye. You spend years, or even a lifetime, getting to know someone. You will in time be closer to your spouse than even to your mother. You did not just live with them, you shared a life with them. You did not just have a wedding, you had a marriage. Marriage is not 50/50. It is both of you giving all that you have for the success of the marriage. All of the love, all of the forgiveness, all of the peace, all of the mercy that you can muster.

When you have invested a lifetime with someone, and they die, you are not going to be over it in a week or two. It will take years to unpack what you have accumulated. Not to mention the areas that are too painful to even touch that will have to wait until the time is right to address them. That is why grieving is the long goodbye.

I gave all that I had to give over the 40 years that we were married. I am not sure that I have anything left to give to someone new. It takes all of my strength to just take care of myself now, and it is coming up on 11 years ago that she died.

I am amazed at those who loved, lost, and love again. How do they do that? How do you love someone and then turn around and love someone else?

For me, faith is similar. How could I love the Lord for all of these years, and then even think about turning away from Christ to serve another God? There is no long goodbye with Jesus. Enduring to the end is my goal.

I pray that if you are married, that you will give yourself to your spouse like you will be married forever. If they die, I can help you survive that.