I am writing this week over at The Glorious Table about transitions. While we hope for smooth transitions, the reality of often far bumpier. Lessons on that and more in the preview below or via the full article is link here.
My husband and I grew up on opposite sides of Missouri but had similar upbringings. We both come from two-parent households in the suburbs. All four parents worked. We spent our entire childhoods in one city and one school system. They were predictable, safe, even unremarkable experiences in many ways. I sure miss that consistency sometimes.
You see, since leaving for college, our adult lives have looked nothing like those predictable, consistent childhoods. We both moved around some in college, and since we married, we have lived in four different places. Each place has required packing and unpacking, making new friends, finding a new church home, grieving the people and places we’d just left, and coping with transition. After all these moves, I’ve decided transitions are often awkward, bumpy, and difficult, even if God has ordained them. It was the same for God’s people.
For many months now, I have been reading slowly through the Old Testament. I feel like it has been forever since God brought the Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus, waiting for the fulfillment of their entrance into the promised land. After a rather laborious trek through Deuteronomy, I have finally entered Joshua. Thank goodness. I get to watch these folks finally take possession of the land they were promised all those years ago.
In Joshua, I think I was anticipating them just sauntering into the promised land untouched, unscathed, and uninhibited. Turns out even a biblical transition at this level involved some growing pains. I want to share with you the ones that I have observed so far, in hopes that they will teach us something we can use when God is taking us through transitions in our own lives.
- Transitions Aren’t for Everyone: Moses, who led the Israelites since they left Egypt, died in the last book of Deuteronomy. A whole bunch of other people died before the transition as well. Joshua and the rest had to move on without them. These people didn’t get to make the transition because they were being punished. But the truth of people having to move on without others often holds true in our own transitions. Each time we’ve moved, there have been people, traditions, and even favorite restaurants and stores that I wanted to take with us. But they were not meant for the next place. Often, you have to move on alone.
For the full list link to the article here.
Anne Rulo 