A "Goodbye" Season

My interim at Woodburn Baptist Church near Bowling Green is coming to an end on Sunday (5/26). I have greatly enjoyed the 4+ months we've worshiped together.

My firstborn child, Catherine, is graduating from high school the following Sunday (6/2). She had an amazing high school career, maintaining a 4.0 while being a member of 2 dance teams, and part of a dance studio, and being involved with churches, and contributing to the family. (...and a bunch of other stuff.)

I met and led worship with a guy in Versailles last week. He's moving before I'll be back there to lead worship again. I think we'd have been friends. Instead, I just got to tell him goodbye... and Godspeed.

So I've been thinking about goodbyes a lot lately.

Do you know the background of the word? It's one of the more interesting ones, I think.

Using "King James" English, say "God be with thee" as fast as you can. It starts to resemble Goodbye. That's the etymology of the word.

So I don't like to say goodbye, but I can hardly think of a better thing to say.

God be with you.

To my friends at Woodburn, until we see each other again... God be with you.

To my daughter's classmates... God be with you.

And to all we encounter--you and I--perhaps there are few words we could say that could make more of a difference in the moments that follow a relationship than "God be with you."

So while this is, best I can tell, a looooong way from my last blog post, still I'll choose to say to my handful of readers, because I deeply desire for God to be your closest companion, Goodbye.