Thoughts about Transition

I'm in a transition and not my first one. And if you're in a transition as you're reading this then it would not be your first one either. We start going through transitions at a very early age - for example the transition from crawling to walking. What an amazing difference that makes in a child's life. Or how about mother's womb to earth's atmosphere. That should have been our first clue about the subject. Transitions are about change and going from once place to another whether it is a geographical location, job change or something of that nature and such changes always involve emotional and spiritual responses.

Right now I am, on the surface of things, moving from one geographical location to another. I'm in Kansas City, MO and in less than two weeks I'll be in Dallas, TX. But I am also going from one lifestyle to another. For all of my life I have moved every few years. The last twenty years of my married life the moves have had spiritual purpose for my husband and I. Where ever we were it was not to stay. This came to be very hard for me because I am a nester and I kept trying to put down roots - well, except here. When we settle in Dallas we believe it will be the last move. We see ourselves "going home". We are looking for that place to "settle" and live as part of a community knowing that we will not be leaving it in a few years. I feel in some ways like my life is actually just beginning.

When I think about the process of going through a transition I see a bridge in my mind. Actually I see the view from the bridge as I pass over. I love to look at the views from bridges. (So why don't I have more pics of them????) Crossing the bridge is my word picture for what is happening in the midst of the transition.









A view from a bridge.






Picture it ......

You enter a bridge. You might be walking or riding a bike. Today though you are probably in a vehicle of some kind going fast and just focused on your destination. Before you know it you have left solid ground behind you - you know there will be solid ground again when you get to it - and as you look around you look upon the world (city, scenery) that you know you are a part of but for the moment you are entirely disconnected from it. "It" is about it's business but your business is to make that journey to the other side. You can't really do much until you do. That's nuts and bolts of the physical part of a transition. But what about the emotional and spiritual aspects. I have learned to focus on the transition itself. Often we miss the emotional and spiritual purposes of a transition that has been orchestrated by Father. He is constantly in the business of transforming us, healing us, making us whole, reconciling us to himself and forming his Son within us. The crises that is sometimes precipitated by a transition should turn our focus and attention on him. And as we with a face unveiled, gaze upon the Son in whatever the circumstances we find him, in a place we've never been before, we find that as we exit the bridge we are transformed yet again. We find that we are made just a little more like him. He has written his laws on our heart again and perhaps expounded on them and clarified them. What an inexpressibly valuable moment this is. And too often we totally lose it's meaning and purpose. I know I have been through many such moments without being truly aware of what was happening.

When we are on the bridge there really is nothing to do except be on the bridge. The best thing we can do is be there - in the moment - embracing the journey.

I have too often fretted about the journey and its requirements. I repent of that.

Thank you Father for getting me to a place in my life where I can focus on that present moment - the present moment that I'm in right now - and savor all that I am seeing both on the exterior of me and the interior of me.