Bringing healthy closure to significant relationships

Saying 'goodbye' to people you love and have shared life and ministry with is a difficult task. Depending on the circumstances of leaving, it is filled with conflicting emotions, some positive and some negative. It is easy in these situations to think that the best thing to do is make a quick and clean exit in order not to hurt people. In fact, the opposite is the case. Quick exits often complicate the pain felt by everyone. It is analogous to a 'sudden unexpected death'. Saying 'goodbye' to people involves very real grieving for you and the community you leave behind. People who have time to prepare to grieve and are able to work through their grief openly and publicly find the process of saying 'goodbye' much more healthy and less debilitating for the future. They carry less pain with them. To disregard your emotional needs and the needs of the community you leave creates feelings of abandonment, betrayal and frustration. Choose the pathway of love and courage. Even though the leaving may be hard, this pathway is the way of life. It enables the next important process in your life - saying 'hello' to a new community.

By Tim Dyer (John Mark Ministries, Tasmania)

More: http://johnmark.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=2