Managing the Season of Transition
By: W. Vincent
Preached @ Solid Rock Church, Huntsville AL.
Deut 4:22-23 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you…
It is a proven scientific fact that change is one of the most feared things that human beings encounter. We resist it with every fiber of our being. We love stability. We love for things to remain as they are. But the inevitable aspect of life is that it always changes. One person said: the only thing constant is change.
Yet, it is impossible to get from where we are to where we are going without making a transition. I feel that a greater part of our success as a Christian, and as a Church is how we manage transition. We need to learn how to function and ultimately be successful in the season of transition.
First of all, we need to understand the nature of transition. A transition is not a change just for the sake of change, a transition is moving from one point to another point. It is essentially moving forward. When we as Christians begin to encounter transition, when things begin to get shaky and unfamiliar, we need to realize that God is taking us somewhere. He is repositioning us. There are things you cannot get where you are at. God wants to strategically position you so that you will be able to access things that you could never get in the place you are at.
In Luke chapter 8 the bible relates a story about transition.
Luke 8:22-25 Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.
Here we find Jesus with his ministry team – his Apostles. And he says there is somewhere that they need to go. If we read further into the story we see that on the other side of the lake was a man in desperate need of deliverance. Jesus needed to position this apostolic team so that they could minister to a need and impact a city. He knew that they could not reach that need where they were. In other words he knew that there present position was ineffective for the need. He realized that in order for them to be in a place of effectiveness, they would have to cross a sea and weather a storm.
23 But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy
They were in jeopardy. In other words, there were real challenges. These were not just perceived difficulties. They weren’t figments of the imagination. This was a real physical obstacle to their mission. Many times following God’s Will does not take us down the easy road. It will not provide us with the path of least resistance. Many times we will find ourselves in the midst of a storm, and feeling as though we are in jeopardy.
Losing a job is a real challenge. Moving to a new city and getting to know new people is not just a perceived trauma – it is real. Dealing with transitions in our homes and families. These are things that are real jeopardy. But we need to remember that if God brought you to it, He will see you through it. And, we must remember that the storm is not the destination but the pathway to a destination. God has not forgotten us in this storm, and we are still going somewhere – there is still divine purpose in our lives.
24 And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
When we are led by God into situations that we cannot handle, we can be sure that he is going to show up and show out. If God presents us with a challenge bigger than we are, you can be sure he is prepared to invest in us the resources necessary to meet that challenge. This trial did not come to master you it came to mature you.
25 And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.
You see where we many times miss it is in the transition. We know where we need to go, and we know what will happen when we arrive, but somehow we loose sight of all of this while making the transition. We forget who we are, who is on board and what he has said. We forget what God has said about us. We loose our identity.
We must not forget in the darkness, what God had promised us in the light. He never said there would be no storms. He never said there would be no challenges. He never said that it wouldn’t be scary some times – but he did say we would make it. Our destiny is greater than our storm.
I
n our text we see Moses charging the Church in the wilderness. He is telling them that in order for them to inherit their promise, they will have to cross over. Now this was toward the end of their journey.
They have up to this point wondered for forty years in the wilderness, because they could not see themselves as the conquers of Canaan. They lost their identity in the wilderness. They forgot what God had spoken to them. They forgot the mighty hand of God that brought them to where they were. They were not lost in the wilderness, they knew where they were. Yet, before they could enter their promise, they had to realize WHO they were.
The transition is not just an unfortunate side effect. It is a part of the process. Before we can get from where we are to where we need to be, we will have to be convinced the what God has said about us is true. As long as we see ourselves as Egyptian slaves – we will stay in bondage to our past. The Israelites had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them. When we realize that what we posses is greater than the challenges we face, then we will be ready to possess our promise. You are not what you used to be. You are better than the mistakes that held you back before. You are growing – BECAUSE – of the transition.
In conclusion I am reminded of the words of an old worship chorus. It says:
Change me Lord, Change Lord – don’t let me stay the same. I want to be like you.
Take my life, make my life – just what you want it to be. Oh Lord please change me, change me dear Lord.
