Have a funeral.

When the person you were isn't the person you are or who you want to be, it's time to say goodbye. And it's painfully beautiful.

I recently had a funeral. Not for anyone close to me. But for myself. And I want to encourage you to have a funeral, too.

I’ve hinted at a big change in my life recently. About a year ago, God exposed something in me in a dramatic way. Not publicly, but privately between my wife and I. It was something I thought I was hiding, something I thought “wasn’t that bad,” something I thought I had under control. But it was slowly — until it was quickly — eating away at my soul and causing me to bleed all over those I loved the most.

That “thing” is going to be the focus of my next book, and I’ll be very open about what it was and how God rooted it out of me. Trust me, there will be a time that you won’t be lacking for details.

A few months ago, then, I had a funeral for that person. I remembered him. I eulogized him. I said what I needed to say, and then I placed him in the ground. I’m not going to pretend I had some big ceremony. But I distinctly recall a definitive time where I said goodby to the old me.¹