ARGH!!! Help, I’m in transition!!!!

Lessons from the non-claustrophobic butterfly.

God knows the day, the hour and the minute of what our current space and place will morph in to….and that is always something beautiful. He has such a way in this, bringing something precious from the good, the bad and the ugly.  

The butterfly goes through much change and shift, before it becomes the colourful winged beauty that we love to watch flit and float about.

I cannot imagine that being stuck in a cocoon for weeks/months on end – I am certain they can’t be claustrophobic that’s for sure.  All that waiting. Time passing, stuck in that tight space, then a little wriggle and a bit more, the end breaks and out they come.

Spreading their wings wide, stretching out in complete freedom and loveliness.

What a treat to behold!

Here’s a question that I love to think about when I find myself in such a time as this.

If you knew that you would experience that same exhilaration and long term benefit, by enduring the hard – would you choose to endure it?

I think about this question, because it’s at the heart of the matter for me.

It actually is at the centre of the whole problem for me with transition.

If I choose to believe the truth of God’s word.

I choose to believe that in everything and anything I might go through, God has me in mind and my good. He has plans to prosper me and not to harm me. He has plans to give me a future and a hope.

How was Paul able to go through sooooooo much trouble and yet have contentment within it?

Because he knew whose he was.

He knew the truth of God’s word.

He knew that God was the ultimate redeemer of circumstances.

When I become aware that the time of intense transition is getting a bit too ‘real’ for my humanity – I know it’s time to take stock of what I am believing about transition and my place before God in it.

 

So here’s a few things that have helped me amidst the turmoil and troublesome. I hope they encourage you to keep on keeping on.

1/ Sometimes I need to just ride the wave. Yes I can get some water in my eyes, swallow a bit and feel like it’s all out of control……but there is always that one moment – where the exhilaration of the ride overrides the fear of it. 

2/ Transition is a journey, not a destination. I can choose to look for God in it and submit to the process.

3/ I have an opportunity to allow this current place to draw me closer and more intimately in to the Father’s arms. It is in this place, that I get to know God better and allow Him to be God in all of this.

4/ It’s a place of letting go and letting God – such freedom can come from this.

5/ Knowing I will not be the same as yesterday, can be an exciting possibility!

6/ Life would be so dull and mundane without the process of change. Would I truly want that? Uh NO!!!

7/ Transition gives me an opportunity to really walk out my faith. Will I choose to respond out of my humanity or out of my trust in God to bring good from whatever is happening. 

8/ Realising that what I focus upon, can become my reality. If I choose to see the hard, feel the pain – then that is what I will be focusing upon. If I decide to look for God in the circumstance and search for the gold – it always rises to the top and the journey is made a little or a lot sweeter as a result.

9/ I ask for the miraculous everyday transition times give me an opportunity to live the miraculous with God.

10/ What is the worst thing that could happen, by me just going with it all? Accept the worst case scenario – then jump into the process with your antennae up for what God is doing in all of it.

11/ It’s when I am looking for the gold within the process that I can see it more clearly. Whose goggles am I wearing in this time?

12/ In transition, it is often my need to control, that restricts the flow of what it could be. So relinquishing control to God, releasing all cares and burdens to Him, then living out my trust in Him within this – there is no greater freedom or delight to my heart when I reach this point.

13/ Holy Spirit loves a good adventure! Transition is one long adventure. Time to release my plans and begin to dream with Him once again.

14/ As a believer it is part of my makeup, that I desire to change from one state to another. It is a very natural place to remain when in Christ. Each day, becoming more and more like him. Each day desiring to be freer, more joyful, less burdened than the days preceding it.