Noonday Notes

Issue No. 43

April 17th, 2026

This week I was given the gift of a good goodbye. Three times fast am I right? To someone who had been integral in my journey as a new believer and follower of Jesus. It felt light and free and full of love and goodwill. Before crafting my goodbye I sought counsel, prayer,  and scripture. Starting in a book on boundaries and goodbyes and ending in Acts.

I got a little sucked into Luke’s color commentary, discovered Lydia, and wanted to move to Cyprus, but it was the Paul and Barnabas split that really got me (Acts 15:36-41). It’s easy to see the moment as a fracture, as an ending. But it’s much more. There’s no tearing down each other, no bitterness, or ill intent. Years later Paul even speaks of Barnabas with respect (1 Cor. 9:6, Col. 4:10). As Barnabas exits stage left, the work continue(d)s. Actually, it multiplies. Perhaps more has been done because of their split…

I think about how often we name something as “over” when perhaps we just can’t see what it’s becoming next. It could be underground dormant, waiting for the right conditions to germinate. It could be under a pile of rotting plants, just trying to find the light and some decent nutrients.

I have experienced a goodbye in farming. Selling my first farm, Common Thread, was self inflicted, resulting in a harvest of regret and longing. And yet, 12 years later I am once again in the soil, growing food and community. According to my journal on 8/16/24 (when Noonday gets planted in my heart), I wrote “I keep feeling like I should be doing something with plants, food, and healing. Like I am to be redeemed by being a farmer again.” 

When God has a design for us we can meddle all we want, but his crop plan is always better.

Goodbyes in the garden happen all the time. Crops come and go. Seasons are fast here. We plant, we tend, we harvest, and then we pull it out and start again. It can feel abrupt, harsh, painful even, but it’s also what allows what’s next to come in.

Perhaps that’s the point. Goodbyes aren’t always the end of the story. Sometimes it’s just a change in direction, or back to Cyprus. Sometimes it allows more to grow than could have grown if everything stayed the same. Side note, Barnabas was right about John Mark. Paul came around too, saying he was “very useful to me for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11 ESV). I may keep pulling this thread and cover conviction next week. Stay tuned.

May you have gratitude for good goodbyes, remain curious for what may come, and make room for it. Trust that in the parting, there is still good good work being done.

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