About
Welcome to Longings End
In this life we have three lasting qualities — faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” ~1 Corinthians 13:13
We’re so glad you’re here! And we look forward to you returning.
At Longings End you’ll find words of faith, hope and love. The healing love of God himself for you, which can change your life and put your heart back together.
We also share some lovely photographs and audio posts to encourage and inspire you as they touch your heart and point you in the direction of the One who loves you best of all.
Our own stories are penned by hearts that have known great hardship, sadness and loss as they looked for love.
Love…
It’s what we all long for. It’s what we are made for. And it’s what we are here on earth to learn to do well!
Yet our longings can move us in different directions as we seek to satisfy them. If they are right and true, they bring us closer and closer to the God who authored and planted them in our hearts.
If they are not, they propel us in wrong directions distorting our vision.
Instead of arriving at a supposed oasis we find ourselves having spent days, months and even years chasing a mirage that, once gained, exposes itself as a foul imitation of the clear, refreshing life-giving water we so eagerly sought.
The two of us can easily relate.
Our history is full of the wreckage wrought by the pursuit of misplaced longings usually in the form of bad choices and broken relationships.
Enter Jesus, the Son of God who came to Earth to explain the Father. Our Elder Brother who loves us like crazy! Longings End in human form.
With Him, even our bad choices can ultimately lead us to the fulfillment of our life purpose. From darkness and chaos, Love emerges showing us the way. And sometimes love shows up as a surprisingly unexpected mid-life twist to our stories {see below for details!}
We are sojourners like you, traveling a path with just enough light for the next step. We’ve lost a lot, been forgiven much and learned lessons the hard way.
And in all these things we have learned to trust God more and give Him thanks. As children of God who are saved and being healed daily by grace, we gratefully share with you what we’ve learned and continue to learn.
Longings End will post three to four times a week, Monday through Saturday, usually in the morning.
We write primarily about faith, love, relationships, emotional and spiritual recovery, marriage, forgiveness and family. And from time to time we share some favorite Longings End recipes.
To Jesus, the immortal, invisible, only wise God we dedicate this website and our very lives.
May the words you find written here help heal your heart, soothe your soul and send you on your way to your own longings end…
~michael & sheila
Some of our top posts…
Stuff of which memories were made…{or house for sale, and 20 years of life lessons}
When you know it’s time to go…{or when God calls to your heart with a dream}
Worn out shoes and flip flops…
Persimmons, prickly pears and petulant daughters…
When arrows fly…{or how words hurt and the only thing that heals a heart is love}
War wounds…{or how the healing brings shalom}
About the writers…
Michael: I began writing when I was much younger having, until recently, allowed my writing to languish in favor of what I considered more financially attractive pursuits.
On one hand, the deferral strikes me in retrospect as a poor choice, a neglect of something precious. From a different perspective, those years, so many of which were filled with sorrows of various kinds, immeasurably contribute to both what I write and the meaningfulness of these writings. I now write full time as well as offer life coaching for men, women and couples at Longings End Coaching.
Sheila: I’ve been scribbling stories since age six and later trained and worked as a journalist for many years. I blog with enthusiasm, love to take photos, and have a copywriting/consulting business with my husband. An award winning writer, I’ve authored numerous magazine, newspaper and online articles. I am also at work on a novel.
One of my passions is seeing hearts healed through the power of love — first and foremost God’s love for each of us. I view life as an ever unfolding journey and am convinced that all of life’s experiences — our stories — can ultimately be transformed by God’s grace into redemptive streams of love, nudging us and others continually closer to the Father’s heart.
Story within a story…
Although our hearts rested fully in the Lord we both longed for a lifelong partner. One special someone with whom to share all the rest of our days. After prayer and consideration, we both posted profiles on a Christian website.
By God’s grace, that 10 day free trial yielded the gift of a lifetime for each of us!
Michael had just finished writing his newest novel, Portals, one day before we met face to face on June 2, high above the river on the Walkway Over the Hudson.
He marveled that the female protagonist in Portals is a green-eyed blonde with many of the personality characteristics of his soon-to-be wife. He is fond of saying, “When I saw Sheila coming towards me on the Walkway it was as if Savannah had walked out of the story and into my life…only this time, reality was better than fiction.”
After 47 days of getting to know each other within the boundaries of a God honoring relationship {a first for both of us}, we eloped!
Granted, it sounds rather zany for a couple in their fifties. But we had a sure sense of God’s direction and a strong peace in moving forward. God’s fingerprints were wide across a spectrum of the details leading up to our union proving, as goes a line in a popular movie, that unspeakably good things can happen late in the game! We were married on Monday, July 18, 2011 in Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
With gratitude to God, the Author of love whose fingers pen all of our life stories, we look forward to the chapters yet to be written…
Contact us…
Learning to love each other well is what we are all here for!
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment or emailing us@longingsend.com
A special thanks to our good friend, David Polczynski, who took photos of us that now serve as the images found in the banner of each page…