Transitions

TRANSITIONS


This blog will have special application to you if...
you have moved
you have changed jobs
you have just graduated
you have found a life partner
you have faced a major health adjustment
you have aged
you have embarked on a new phase of career
you have a new family member
you have an economic challenge before you
you are breathing as you read these words.


Transitions...we all face them.

Sunday will complete 5 months of interim pastoring at Restoration Church. Last Sunday a new pastor was overwhelmingly chosen...and now transition is happening...for everyone. Not bad at all...just happening and often challenging.

Jackie left for work again this morning at 7:30 - after I got her her favorite cup of coffee...and later did the dishes and picked up the house...and stayed home! And just might cook our supper tonight.

Big role reversal for us right now. Wild!

Now common..I am writing, coaching, speaking, mentoring and pastoring. But most of it is home-based. So the roles have shifted.

Makes one want to sing the line of a great hymn...in a more changeless time...."Oh Thou Who changest not, abide with me."

Well, actually, that is a great place to begin, in facing transition.
Surrounded by it all, and in a full scramble...the best thing we can do is to draw closer to the Rock..the one Who is the "same yesterday, today, and forever." Who "changes not."

Not time to do that? Proof that more than ever you must carve out time (figure implies cutting out of some intensity-producing stuff :))- make time to do that. (Like right after reading this short piece, why not stay right where you are and just sit before the Lord and talk some stuff out with Him?)

Second:
Don't spend time muttering about change. Life is full of change...in fact it is the essence of life itself. (Ever watch the transformations and incredible changes that come to the butterfly before it has flight? It really is all about change.
Better to spend time in thought and prayer about how to best respond to change and take it head on...like the surfer does the big one.

Third:
If you feel like you are "all in a dither"...it might be time to talk it through with someone who can be a bit more objective and speak calming and motivating words to you as to how to deal better with it. (If you need this you'll easily spot moments of anger, and stuff left undone that is really critical to your future...like your health.)

So, carpe diem..sieze the moment...and keep running (albeit with patience) the race that is set before you... (See Hebrews 12)

"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in."

Puffing a bit as I run...with you.

David