TRANSITION

Everywhere I go at the moment I hear of transition. People who have been entrenched in roles and positions for years, now have that itchy, restless feeling that brings a sense of irritability and even powerlessness as they look to the future. Even the most visionary leaders may feel confused as they grope to understand what the way ahead contains for them. It’s as though God is moving people around strategically like on a chessboard and He’s got a major new game plan happening. Each generation experiences seasons like this within the context of Church mission and this is how new ground is won and new ministries are formed. This is how the Church advances! It was persecution that drove the new Christians out of Jerusalem and into the rest of the world. It’s vital at these times that we actively prepare ourselves to accommodate the new thing. God’s plans are often contingent on the willingness of His people to go joyfully into the new season.
 
We are often confused at the means by which the new season comes. Sometimes the catalysts for the changes don’t seem to relate to the changes themselves, and yet they are far more involved in directing our future than we realise. In God’s economy, nothing is ever wasted if we choose to allow it to be recycled for His purposes. God is the ultimate Recycler. Therefore, prolonged sickness, the death of someone you love, the loss of a job or a friend or a vision or your security, will often be the prelude to a whole new life, designed by God.  
 
One thing that I have found in the years I have ministered as a leader in the Church is that no matter how much I belong in my role, I don’t own it! Yes, there’s an ownership that comes as I take responsibility, but that ownership could better be classified as stewardship. When the time comes for God to change the season, I had better be willing to let go of my role because He has His funny little ways of helping me do that if I get my role and my identity mixed together.
 
We are NOT what we do! No matter what our gifting or calling is, we cannot get our identity out of it. Our only true and lasting identity comes out of being a child of God, nothing more and nothing less – and we are not superior or inferior to any other child of God, regardless of their position or lack thereof. The season change is made much more painful when we lost context on that and begin to allow our role or ministry to be the basis of our identity. That’s always dangerous, because when those things go, which they invariably do at different times in our lives, we are left feeling as though we have nothing. When we find our identity in Him we can more easily enjoy the varying roles He chooses for us.
 
Recently, the Lord showed me a picture of a river. I could see the direction it was going and I understood that to mean that He allows us to see when and to some degree, where we are headed. However, then He invited me to look into the river. I could see clear to the bottom, the pebbles and foliage. He contrasted that to the uncertainly of what the bottom of a churning river would look like; there would be mud clouding the water and although I could still see the direction I was going, I wouldn’t be able to see how the things that were happening to me were helping me get there.
 
He explained that I can only be at peace with the direction He is taking me when there are no internal issues muddying the water. External things like sickness or loss of role or being rejected cannot muddy my river if I take personal responsibility to continue to deal with the internal issues. The health of our internal life supplies the keys to whether or not we can see with clarity what God is doing. If we have dealt with pride and fear and jealousy, the need to be needed or acknowledged, rejection, self pity and all the host of other issues that come to plague us, we will have a clarity on the ‘how’ of our new season.
 
Living in forgiveness and freedom from the need to be right are keys that will allow us to sail down a smooth and clear river without being tossed about along the way. The tossing comes from inside us, not from the outside. When we have an overarching understanding that despite whether our current situation is good or bad, God is in charge of it, we are empowered to walk free of the stuff that comes from living in a less than perfect world. Not only that, but we can enjoy willingly going down that river in the direction that God is taking us.
 
God is bigger than the problems that surround you.  He’s bigger than the issues that make you feel powerless and frustrated. He’s bigger than all your plans and ideas. Let go of the steering wheel; move over and let Him drive. You’ll enjoy your life a lot more.
 
Bless you guys… I pray that you are enjoying your year, despite the things that sometimes threaten to overwhelm you. Remember, nothing is happening that He isn’t aware of, and you won’t sink if you keep your eyes on Him.
 

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