We’ve all been there and seen the handwriting.
I imagine the subset of people who have been in a relationship and not seen that the end was inevitable is very small. Parting ways with someone we care about is never easy. Even as our heart yearns for the continuation of the relationship our head knows that both they and we will have to go our own way. Such is the dilemma presented in “Stay” by Zedd & Alessia Cara.
This week’s top song in Digital Sales as well as Hot Dance/Electronic and Dance/Electronic as reported by Billboard is all about letting go. The pleading to just “stay” for a little while longer no doubt sounds familiar. See the lyrics here.
Who hasn’t wanted time to stand still even as we knew it couldn’t? The passage of time and the acceptance of what must happen are never easy. Words from Ecclesiastes 3:6 advise us there is “A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;” but sometimes it seems all too often those times don’t correspond to what we believe should happen.
Whether it’s the certainty that our path is divergent from someone we care about or that our life’s events don’t seem to unfold as we expect, we’re urged to look beyond ourselves. Proverbs 4:25-27 says “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” We may or may not see the twists and turns of and in our path as evil but we’re surely not pleased with them. Especially with matters of the heart it’s hard to see the larger picture even though we’re urged in Colossians 3:2 to: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” it’s the “earthly things” that motivate us; perhaps too much.
The direction we try and steer our lives and our loves doesn’t always work out for us. Even though our hearts want to stay young the reality is that nothing is completely within our control and even the passage of time, even if we stay; the outcome remains the same. Somehow, someway we need to make our peace with it especially when the inevitable vexes us most. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” In those times where our heart breaks most we have to believe not in the things of this world or our own desires but in a larger plan, a bigger picture. There we can find comfort. Getting there isn’t easy but it’s worth it. As John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it fear.” It’s through this that we find strength not to stay but to go on.
As an old guy I’m reminded of much, much older song by Neil Sedaka “Breaking up is hard to do” when I think about this subject. If you’re in the midst of one of these tough times I hope this helped and if you know someone who might find some solace in these scriptures I hope you’ll share it.
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