June, oh June

I have a love-hate relationship with the month of June.

On the plus side, there's normally great sport: Wimbledon, and biannually the World Cup or European Championships. I love the smell of barbeques, and I love the greater opportunity to just hang around with people, especially students who've finished exams.

But it's also a month of goodbyes. And I'm not really a fan of saying goodbye.

Last night was the last meeting of the year for Lancaster CU. There are about 30 students that have been CU regulars that are leaving. Some of them - including Shaun, Holly, Emily and Rob - have become Christians through CU in recent years. Others have been close friends and those that I've been privileged to see more of Jesus formed in - I was particularly gutted to say goodbye to some. I'll miss Mike, who I did a 1-1 Bible study with for nearly two years. I'll miss Andy, who's been a friend for four years. And the goodbyes go on: at lunchtime, the final meeting of Myerscough CU of the year; tomorrow, the final Relay Supervision of the year with my colleagues and friends, Sarah and Nick. Many of those I'm saying goodbye to, I will see again - but in the short term, it will be far less frequently.

It's sometimes tempting to want to somehow 'pause the moment'; to hold onto what we have at any given period in time. Yet I know that history is heading towards the new creation which - as the hymn puts it - is the place of 'solid joys and lasting pleasures'. Sometimes our danger is to get nostalgic about things as they are. Far better to commit my friends to Jesus, then to have my focus fixed on that which is unseen but permanent, living in the light of eternity with God.