When a Dream Comes to an End
by Madison Aichele
“I feel like I’ve failed you, and I’m sorry.”
The Zoom meeting grew quiet. It was the last time Co-Creatives Collective members would meet before I closed everything down. Tears blurred my vision because I loved these people and this dream of a community connecting with God through creativity. But with a heart overwhelmed with grief and God’s gentle whisper to release, I knew it was time for this dream to end.
DIFFICULT ENDINGS
Finally, one member unmuted and said, “If you’ve failed, then so have we. If your time and effort meant nothing, then so did ours.” In other words, she convinced me that what we’d done together mattered, even if the form we knew and loved was ending.
The words stuck with me when I hit “deactivate,” and the digital platform disappeared. It rang in my heart when I sent the last email to members. It comforted me in the immediate aftermath when I wondered why God would ask me to step out in faith if He knew it would end this way, and if my creative dreams would always lead to this.
I wondered why God would ask me to step out in faith if He knew it would end this way.
I heard it months later on a crisp, fall walk. Darkness was starting to overtake me as the sun sank beneath the clouds. In desperation for answers, I flung questions to the sky. “God, was everything pointless? Did I waste everyone’s time? What’s the point of stepping out in faith if it always ends this way?”
The silence ached, so I picked up my pace. Turning onto my road, I looked toward our house at the end of the cul-de-sac. The street lamp almost directly in front of our home was on. It was radiant in the dim, fall evening, and it sparked something in my heart.
TRUE THINGS LAST
“Do you think I’d ask you to do something that wouldn’t have eternal impact?” His light cut through my spiritual darkness with kind precision.
I heard my friend’s voice from the Zoom meeting, and God gave me a phrase to accompany it: True things last.
My story is riddled with the anticipation of a creative dream’s beginning and the devastation of its end. A blog, an online store, a coaching business, a creative community; I’ve failed at all of them. It’s humbling, to say the least. I’ve tried and hoped and stepped out in faith to crash into endings I never wanted more times than I’d like to admit.
What God showed me in that season—what His truth revealed in my spiritual doubt—was that His ways are higher than our ways. His measure of impact isn’t the same as ours. And when we think we’ve failed, wasted people’s time, or that our creative dreams don’t mean anything, His light radiates through to say it means something. It always has, and it always will. Because what’s done in love will live on in ways that matter.
True things will last because that’s the kindness and grace of God. Where we see disappointing outcomes, He sees planted seeds that will stretch out roots through generations.
True things will last because that’s the kindness and grace of God.
Sometimes the endings are only just the beginning.
About Madison
Madison Aichele is a writer living in Nashville, TN with her musician husband and three-legged cat. She currently serves as the executive director at Calla Press Publishing, where she has the joy of helping authors steward their stories through to publication. Her debut book, True Things Last: Why Creative Dreams Matter Even If They Don’t Come True, will arrive on October 14.
Connect with Madison:
Website: www.madisonaichele.com
Instagram: @madisonaichele
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonaichele