No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later!

As some of you know by the main title on my blog, I am student youth and young adult leader. Going in to the job field that I am, I know I have student in the ministry I lead for about 4 years max. Then they move up to an older group. But how ever some of them leave and go to school, some where outside of the Hamilton area. And then we have to say goodbye to each other. This happened last night as one of the girls from my youth ministry is leaving to go to Africa for a year of school and ministry her name is Jade (this is a picture of me and her). Because of this it could me to think about goodbyes. And as you can see from the title of this blog, No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! (This is quote from the movie John Q) I knew I heard this quote before but I have not seen John Q before so it is not from this movie but I could not find the one I was looking for so I went with that one. The quote says no goodbye, you know I don’t like goodbyes. I wonder why the kid in this movie does not like goodbyes. What about you how you feel and handle goodbyes? I think goodbyes can be the hardest thing to handle sometimes. I know it was hard to say goodbye to guys at work, because you spend 8 hours a day with one person and now you have to say goodbye for at least 8 months. But I like the second part of this quote. See you later! We now live in a time when it is not really goodbye it is more like see you later, because of things like the phone, msn, email and the internet. We might not be able to see the person but we can write them an email and get an answer soon I know it is not the same as seeing and talking to the person, but it only might be for a time, like a year. But it is still hard and that’s ok. I do not like goodbye were meant to be easy. We are people of relationship so when we say goodbye we feel like we are saying goodbye relationship.

Now time to bring the God part in I know you were waiting for this part. I started thinking about this whole goodbye thing. And I was led to think about when Jesus left his Father to come to earth as a baby what kind of goodbye went on in the heavens. Maybe something was said like: No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! Maybe it was hard for him too say goodbye but the idea of see you later was maybe always in the back of his mind. I do not know I am just thinking here. Jesus had to say goodbye twice in his life that most of be the hardest for him. The first was when he left the Father to come to earth the second was when we had to say goodbye to his follows and return to heaven. He had spend at least 3 years with these people travelling around and spending 1095 days at least together you get to know someone and you are going to miss them when you leave. So he might have said something like: No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! (This is not in the Bible word for word it is just an idea I have)

Therefore goodbyes can be hard and I do not want to down play them. But let’s try not to hold on to the goodbye but the see you later part, because we will see them again and it is ok to miss people and it ok cry when you miss the people you have said goodbye too. Try too holding on the memories you have with that person, but remember No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later!

So who is the person you will say No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! To this week? Or maybe a friend going off to school? Or maybe you are saying it to your friends as you leave to go to school? Maybe parents as you leave to go to school? Or maybe you will just start saying it in general?

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden