Hey, guys.

When the same idea comes up three different times from several different sources, it’s usually time to pay attention.

A few weeks ago at our staff meeting, Pastor Paul asked the question, “What has God been doing in your life lately?”  When it came my time to share, I said something like, “God has been keeping me off balance, getting into new things, always feeling like I’m doing something new that taxes my abilities to their limits.”  The idea I was fumbling to articulate was that I feel so often like I’m in transition, growing into something new.  That was Monday.

Then on Thursday, Paul and Sonja and I met for a couple hours.  Paul made an aside comment about learning during his sabbatical about transition — how most of us minimize it, try to get through it, try to get back to stable, normal life again.  

Then Friday on Facebook, a college friend of mine posted the following:  “ ‘Transition’ kind of infers that eventually we land at a stopping place—and we're told that is normal and good. That's the goal, after all, to stop transitioning ... I think it's wrong, bad and a lie.”

What do you do with transition in your life?  When you find yourself in flux, moving from one kind of stability into a sea of change, do you enjoy the ride?  Or do you fight the turmoil, the sense of instability, the feeling that the floor has dropped out from beneath you?  Is it possible that Jesus is Lord of the transition zone as well?

Two observations about transitions.  First, as we have been working our way through the book of Acts in Sunday morning worship at Central, it strikes me that the early church was almost always in transition of some kind.  Jesus’ rising from the dead threw everything off balance.  After Easter, Jesus’ followers were always in transition.  If we are following Jesus (and believe me, he is moving in our world today!), we will find ourselves in transition.  Never get too comfortable.

Second, I remember from an intro to biology class in college learning that almost all life exists in transition zones — meaning, places where one kind of environment meets another.  The edge where the woods meets the prairies, for example, or the shallows along the edge of the ocean where the sea meets the shore, or the oxygenated water on the surface of the ocean where it meets the atmosphere.  Thinking ahead to the fishing opener, even the walleyes usually have sense enough to hang out along the structure where the lake meets the bottom.  Most organisms live in that kind of transition zone.  That is where we find abundant life.

So if you’re in transition, don’t fight it.  Realize that God might just be trying to grow you into more abundant life.  Ride the waves for a while and see how God wants to grow you beyond where you’ve been.  Is there evidence that he is at work in your discomfort?  Is there a possibility he’s bringing you into the transition in order to expand the amount of life in your life?  Are you willing to trust him?

Jeff

P.S. Maybe it’s time for a transition in your marriage, too!   Have you considered the Marriage Course?  Pastor Sonja Dixon and I will be leading this course starting tomorrow night (Wednesday) at the Elk River YMCA.  You don’t need to be a member of the Y to attend, but you will need to show a photo ID to get in.  Call the church office if you’re interested in the Marriage Course!