I FINALLY KNOW WHAT COMMENCEMENT MEANS

"Oh, no!" I said aloud. "I cannot believe I did that!" I was sitting at a graduation when I learned that "commencement" means the beginning of something--not the end.

Unfortunately, just a week or two before that, I had written an AP essay using the word "commence" to speak of the end of something. And I used it that way at least a few times. Go ahead and laugh--I'm not always the sharpest tool in the shed. And now I was pretty sure I'd failed the essay portion of the AP test. How on earth did I end up in AP English anyway?!?

Maybe I can crank out a good essay in spite of my limited understanding of vocabulary, or maybe the AP reader didn't know what commencement means either, because (somehow) I still passed the test.

I awoke very early this morning with that memory in mind, and these words running through my head: Commencement is anything but the end of something. It's the beginning.

And I can't help thinking that

the end of living in a pit isn't just the end of an existence in the mud and the mire. It's the beginning of a life of liberty.

The end of holding onto a hurt isn't just the end of bitterness and resentment. It's the start of healing and freedom.

The end of living deceptively isn't just the end of duplicity. It's the beginning of simplicity and single-minded devotion.

Even the end of things that were precious to me--seasons of life, places I've lived, opportunities I've had--were not merely endings. They were the beginnings of the next season, the next place, the next opportunity...the next blessing.

And the end of living a broken life according to my flesh isn't just the end of "me." It's the commencement of growing in Christ-likeness--and therefore the beginning of all kinds of mighty, glory-drenched, eternal things--finally living as the "me" I was created to be.

And there will be a day when I'll arrive for my own commencement ceremony. Oh, people may gather in a church and say words of remembrance, but I won't be here for it--I'll be there for it. Because when my days on earth are through, what might appear to be the end will be anything but. I'll be beginning my dwelling with the One who made me. It'll be the start of knowing as I've been known all along. It'll be the first of the rest of my days of standing beside my Savior. My Savior! How beautiful.

You are a God of beginnings veiled in things that appear to be coming to an end. You are Eternal God, and when it seems that things are tying up, You are ready to tie us in to our next beginning--whether here, or there. I love You.