Creative destruction

When old things break down and die, new things can be born and grow from them.

If you have a garden, maybe you see this all the time. Dead plant matter becomes compost for growing new plant life.

Can you think of a time when a relationship ended or you lost a job and something new (and better) came along in its place?

I’m old enough now to know that the good life is not one long winning streak that leads to the top. The good life is what grows from a lot of failures, losses, and setbacks. The way we grow into our best selves is to grow from our worst moments.

But this is a choice we must choose. When something ends or falls apart, we must choose what to do with what is left of it.

The choice is simply this: Either try to put everything back to the way it was before, or to let something new grow in its place.

God gives us grace to choose to grieve what we lost and let something new grow in its place. This is hard. It is hard to imagine our lives or the world looking different than it did before. It takes faith and hope.

Do we trust that God’s will is good? Do we believe that God can imagine and make a future that is better than the past we want to bring back?

The Christian faith is born out of the death of its Founder. The Kingdom of God rises from the rubble of the kingdoms of the world. Our failures are where God has the most room to succeed in our lives.

If you feel like something is falling apart or passing away, pray about it. Ask God to show you if something needs to die so that God can bring something new to life in its place. Maybe instead of trying to stop creative destruction, it is time to let it come.

Grace and peace.