Life often confuses me. I easily misunderstand others and I am often misunderstood. I have a tendency to talk when I ought to listen and I also tend to think I can make things better with my words, if I can just find the right words. This truly is the root of all the confusion that comes into my life. The confusion that can put me at odds with a brother or sister and wreck valuable relationships. The root of my confusion is the illusion of having my own control over the situation, to prevent it, or fix it if things go wrong. The truth is that human relationships seldom last a lifetime. Even those to whom we are related by blood may one day abandon us or we abandon them. Even to those whom we vow to remain with until death does us part, often part before then even when they still live in the same house. There is no relationship solid enough to count on for continual sustenance in this life. God allows many people to pass through our lives to teach us many things but the only relational rock is Jesus.
Time changes everything and everything we take hold of in this life, we must at some future date, let go of. When we seek to hold onto those whom God has taken in another direction, things get confusing because we are putting ourselves in conflict with the Will of God by our grasping, grabbing, and toiling to keep life the same when everything has changed.
How much better to simply trust in the fact that when I let go of my present, Jesus is faithful to hold on to me and move me into my future. The end of all my confusion with others is in letting go of all my desires to keep them, protect them from harm, and shelter them from their own propensity toward error. Whoever they are or have been in my life is fully under the direction of God and the good works done through them will remain forever. All the rest, the misunderstandings and confusion, are but hay and stubble to be burned away on that last day and remembered no more.
I choose now not to be mindful of any hay or stubble but instead to fill my memory with all the good. As I allow my mind to dwell upon all that is of good report there is no fear and no sorrow. For all of us who are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, all things lovely and true are our true condition. We pass through time but we are not subject to time and there truly are no good-byes for this moment is eternity. Eternity is filled with only good works for there is no covering of darkness for the evil. The evil is brought to light and then remembered no more as that which was of darkness is changed by the presence of the Light. This is the completion of forgiveness.
Even though I may now walk another path than someone who is important to me, it isn't good-bye for even though we now are led in different directions, we are still united as we each continue in the Way; each on our own narrow path with Jesus.
Remember the words of your Savior also, you shall forgive your brother even seventy times seven times, as I have forgiven you. ~ God [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 1 - Stand Firm in the Face of Those Who Would Mock You for My Names Sake]