Living in Transition as Spiritual Practice

I am now in Sydney Australia after what has been one of the easiest long international trips I have made for a long time.  I even slept for several hours on the flight which makes me very aware of the fact that people have been praying for me.

Today’s article comes from Guy Chmieleski who is a follower of Jesus, a husband to Heather, a father to 3 small children, a friend to many, a relatively new blogger (check out http://guychmieleski.blogspot.com), a wannabe triathlete and the University Minister at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Life is full of transitions…

Transitions mark some of the most significant moments of our lives!  They also tend to include some of the most challenging moments as well.

Transitions encapsulate the end of one thing and the beginning of another.

Transitions often include a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from hurt, grief and loss to excitement, joy and anticipation…

Transitions often provide some of the most fertile soil in which God can plant seeds, grow plants and reap a harvest!

However, reaping a harvest from our transitions requires something of us…

We must be willing to live in, and through, transition with openness to God in our midst.

Living with an openness to God in our midst is often much easier to do when life is easy and going our way.

When life is not so easy, and seemingly not going our way… well, that’s another story.

My current transition: a season of relative homelessness – with my wife and three small children…

We were scheduled to close on the sale of our old home and the purchase of a new one on the same day – June 18^th.

On June 17^th, just 30 minutes before friends were arriving to help us pack our home into a U-Haul, we got word back on the independent mold inspection we had done…

three different strands of “deadly” mold at “of-the-chart” levels…

We packed the truck as scheduled, closed on the sale of our old home the next day, and have been “on the road” ever since.

While transitions have the incredible potential to be times of walking closely with the Father, with openness to change and being changed, it does necessitate a disciplined heart and mind that are focused on the Lord.

If you’re anything like me you might too often find yourself easily frustrated, upset and self-consumed when in the middle of life’s bigger transitions…

It would seem that in most times of transition, as a people who typically like to have all of life’s details in order, we can struggle to focus on anything other than our immediate needs and circumstances.

When we become obsessed with trying to figure it all out, speed up the process and manipulate things so that they go our way, we tend to take our eyes off of God and depend solely upon our own effort.

We cease to trust in God and His Divine work in our life and begin to try and make things happen on our own strength.

Trust is essential… ALWAYS!  But especially in times of transition.

Don’t get me wrong.  God does ask us to work… but it has to be in conjunction with what He is doing.  It has to be the work that He wants US to do… and not the work that ONLY He can do.

One of the things I love most about our God is that He gives us the choice to turn to Him, to bring ourselves under His leadership, to join with Him in the work He is doing in our midst… or not.

The bible is full of stories of people in transition… consider the lives of some of the following:

• Adam & Eve
• The Patriarchs
• Moses
• The Israelites
• David
• Jesus
• The Disciples
• Paul

Transition happened back then and it happens now… Transitions are happening all around us…

Our task is to open ourselves to God in the midst of our transitions and allow Him to lead us, and work on us, as we journey from one side to the other!

Grace and peace to you as journey and transition…

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