The Ballestero Blog

Saying ‘Good-Bye’ To Friends

Saying Good-Bye to friends is not easy. In my experience, tears have been involved from time to time. It’s hard to say Good-Bye to those you love and those who mean so much to you.

Saying Good-Bye To Supposed Friends:

Friendships can be transient. Some people come and go in your life. They just move on without warning. Maybe they outgrow you or they focus on other things. I don’t have that answer. But it doesn’t feel good.

Some Friends have even been known to turn on their old friends. It uncomfortable to see someone who used to be a Friend and now they avoid even making eye contact with you. Or, if they do speak, it’s cool and not warm like it used to be. The emptiness in your heart is deep when you walk away. The sense of loss is almost overwhelming. New friends are a medicine and a replenishment of the soul.

Saying Good-Bye To A Former Friend:

Looking back over a lifetime, I had friends in school whose names I can’t even remember now. A couple of my friends were so important to me at the time, that I included them in my wedding. Today I don’t know their phone number, their address or how many grandchildren they have. We haven’t talked in several decades. Back then I thought we were friends.

Saying Good-Bye to some friends is gradual. With others, it’s a much quicker process.

Saying Good-Bye To Dear Friends:

The last several weeks have been horrible for a number of Pentecostal families, for several churches and for many of my ministering friends.

The recent news of the passing of beloved men of God or their family members has brought tears to many of our eyes. Some men so impact your heart that you’re never quite the same. Their death leaves a major void in your life. Their family’s tears rip your heart out.

Funerals are hard for us. We call them ‘Home Goings” and do our best to rejoice that the departed has kept the Faith and finished their course and are now are now resting in Jesus. Yet tears still flow freely because we feel the loss so deeply.

Maybe they didn’t call us on the phone everyday, but when they saw you, the fellowship picked right back up from where you left off. They treated you warmly and hugged you like they meant it. They made you feel like you were their very dear friend.

The past week and this coming week find me already missing my recently departed friends. May they rest in Peace, and may the Prince of Peace comfort the hearts of the families and friends left behind.

Some day we will all say Good-Bye to this old world. We look forward to going to a place where none of us shall ever have to say Good-bye again.

Biblical Promise: No More Separation

Rev. 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

• The sea separates. There will be no more sea over there.

Biblical Promise: No More Tears

Rev. 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

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What A Day That Will Be

Words & Music by Jim Hill

There is coming a day,
When no heart aches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus:

What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

There’ll be no sorrow there,
No more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain,
No more parting over there;
And forever I will be,
With the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus:

What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be