29. The Struggle of the Empty Nest
Episode 29
Some parts of the empty nest can be a struggle. How do we find a new direction? What do we do with the loneliness of the empty nest? How do we stay the course so we follow Jesus through these years? We don’t want the struggles we encounter to keep us from following Jesus until the end?
Show Notes
Let's have an honest, revealing, reality check about what is hard about the empty nest. It’s important to talk about the hard because as we acknowledge it, we can either find solutions at best, or learn how to live with it at worst. What do you find hard with the empty nest?
Other Episodes in This Series
FIRST: Here’s my honesty: there are things I love about the empty nest. Unusual way to begin a conversation about the struggle, isn’t it? But before we talk about what’s hard, let’s acknowledge. Some things are great. I discussed the Opportunities in Episode 28.
Less mess
Less laundry
Fewer groceries
Fewer sports practices
But, other parts are difficult. I don’t think it denies Jesus’s sovereignty or goodness to say that some of the places He puts us stink just a wee bit.
Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
We are living “former things” now! Tears and pain and mourning.
Romans 8:35-37: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Just remember: NOTHING can separate you from the love of Jesus. Nothing.
The Struggles
I find the empty nest lonely.
I find the empty nest too un-directed
I find the empty nest confusing
I find the empty nest self absorbed.
I find the empty nest can make me lazy.
And if I don’t keep my guard up ALL my days, I’ll fall into sin now just as easy or easier than when younger. Just because the kids are gone, can I now watch shows full of sin and think they won’t affect me?
The greatest example of guarding ourselves to the end is the recent heart wrenching case of Ravi Zacharias. I wrote a blog about it I’ll put a link to. But it matters! I look at him not to talk about how bad he is but to make the point how easy it is to fall. I must take sin seriously
How HARD to stay the course. - the greatest struggle!
Answers to the Struggles
I might be confused right now but the Lord isn’t.
1 Corinthians 14:33a: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
I might be lonely but I’m never alone.
Deuteronomy 31:6: Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."
I might feel weak and not sure how to sustain living for Jesus in this season, but it doesn’t rely on my own strength.
Isaiah 46:4: even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Just listen to this:
Isaiah 40:29-31: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
That promise applies to us at whatever age or stage we are in now.
Yes, there are struggles in the empty nest. But the Lord meets us here. He gives us direction and assignments and the strength to accomplish them.
So let’s do them!