Acts 20
What You Leave Behind
"I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." (Acts 20:32)
Paul knew he wasn’t coming back to Ephesus. He called the elders to him in Miletus and gave them everything he had left to give. He recounted his time with them, warned them about what was coming, and then handed them over to God and to the word.
The elders wept. They hugged him. They walked him to the ship. Because they knew he was right. He wasn’t coming back. And they would have to lead without him.
This is the chapter I keep coming back to when I think about what it means to end something well. Paul didn’t minimize what was coming. He named the hard things. He reminded them of what he’d modeled. He warned them about wolves. And then he released them.
The hardest part of releasing people you love is trusting that what you built into them is enough. That what God started in them will continue without your direct involvement. That the word is enough to sustain them when you’re no longer in the room.
It usually is. But you have to actually let go to find out.
