Transitions - Expect the Best

I had a great chance to launch the new Transitions series on Sunday AM.

I have really enjoyed the privilige of preaching to a great group of people on a regular basis.

Here are some notes and quotes from part 1... and the podcast will be available soon.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

The gap between seasons and events is called "transition."

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares

Proverbs 1:20 (NIV)

Wisdom and common sense and life principles to help with transitions are everywhere – if you are looking for them.

Sociologists say that now, there is more change today than there used to be. Not only are we in an everchanging world of situations, relationships, and identities - these situations, relationships, and identities are themselves in transition, - many of us are caught in a semi permanent condition of transition and change.

Throughout nature, the normal growth process involves periodic accelerations and transformations: things go slowly for a time and nothing seems to happen –until suddenly the eggshell cracks, the branch blossoms, the tadpole’s tail shrinks away, the leaf falls, the bird moults, the hibernation begins. With us it is the same. Although the signs are less clear than in the world of feather and leaf, the functions of transition times are the same. They are key times in the natural process of self-renewal.

Transition and change can be your friend – if handled wisely.

Expect the best from your transitions and changes – a transition is an opportunity to end something and also start something new.

One of the benefits of reviewing your experience of endings is to see how often they have cleared the ground for unexpected beginnings.

Transitions clear the ground for new growth. They drop the curtain so that the stage can be set for a new scene. What is it, at this point in your life, that is waiting quietly backstage? - Bridges

You will always be torn between a developmental thrust that brings about life transitions
And the impulse toward repetition that aborts the change your life needs.

How do I understand – and how do I expect the best?

1. Get a “God-word” for the journey - Get a fresh God word

2. Keep talking to God and drawing on His strength

3. Chart your location on the transition journey

4. Reflect on what you are learning

5. Get a moving buddy – someone to listen

6. Move with the transition rhythm

7. Seek to “get a clue” – open your eyes and expand your awareness

8. Keep on going – if you are on a train in a dark tunnel don’t get off in the dark tunnel, wait till the train stops at the next station – gut it out!

9. Determine to transition well – people remember how you finish

10. Celebrate and honour at the right time

11. Get a song for your season

Do your best, prepare for the worst— then trust God to bring victory.

Proverbs 21:31 (MSG)

There are 4 common aspects of the natural ending experience – disengagement, disidentification, disenchantment, disorientation. These involve 4 important life ingredients - connection, identity, reality and direction. Jesus meets all 4 needs – He knows how all this works

Be willing to transition into your new season
Make up your mind to enter your new season
Let go of the old to embrace the new
Expect the best from your transitions!

Bridge from Desert Song -

All of my life, in every season
You are still God, I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

We’re like shellfish that often continue to open and close their shells on the tide-schedule of their old home waters, even when they have been transplanted to the laboratory tank or the restaurant kitchen. - Bridges