"The Transition"

June has arrived and as the majority of the country enters it's first weeks of summer or it's last weeks of school, I've realized how this is truly a season of change.

I have students being promoted to the next grade, family graduating from school, friends getting married or having babies, and even some of them completely changing their lives by moving to another country (or coming home from one).

It always seems to be at the end of one stage of life that the impending arrival of that next phase comes rushing at you. But with that I think we forget about the calm before the storm. We can become really restless in the quiet that settles in before everything starts back up again.

But that reminds me of how important "the transition" really is. There is a necessity in having a brief period of time to collect yourself and prepare for the next big thing in your life. Granted, some of us get a whole summer and some of us are not quite as lucky, but regardless of how much time we get it's important to make use of it and not waste it speeding forward. We need to relax, which I think is the hardest thing for this generation to do (no matter what our parents say).

With that, I just wanted to offer a few reminders to all my friends out there as they transition from one point of life to the next. I may not be the wisest person in the world; the most traveled; the most informed...but I love you all and that's really where this comes from: me wanting to show love to you in the best way I know how.

So...here we go: 

1. Take a breath, "surreality" is going to last a while, but it won't last forever.

Whether you're graduating school, getting married, or simply finding your place in a new world, it's all going to feel new and exciting and you'll start see how much potential life has to be amazing. But with that you'll also see the potential for it to fall completely apart, for everything to go wrong or go away, leaving you heartbroken and with nothing left to build back up.

So with both of those images in mind it's easy to see why so many of us get overwhelmed and fluctuate between one emotion to the next. We never feel grounded, always feeling like we're stuck in a limbo or dream state. But the truth about dreams is that eventually we wake up, we come back to life and can use it to fuel how we conquer the rest of the day.

So, while you wait for that moment...take a breath.

Take a moment to step back and give yourself some space. Allow yourself some time to adjust and remember that God is always bigger than the greatest fear you can think up and even the ones you wouldn't.

2. Moving into a new world may mean adjusting to a new world of people, but that includes a new you. Take some time to get to know you.

With whatever fresh start this is, you must know that the person you are now as opposed to the person who originally dreamed of getting here is not the same person. You've got new goals, new ideas, new...everything. So use this time to get to know the new you before getting thrown into a place of new faces.

Every day is a new day to work on ourselves in both big and small ways.

Take Paul for instance, in Acts 13 we find out that he changed his name from Saul to Paul. Commentators and scholars have debated on the reasons for it and Paul never really specifies, but some people say that Paul is a more Roman name, so in order to reach out to the gentiles he changes his name from Saul to Paul so that they might listen to him.

Others say that Paul was looking to separate himself from the person he was. Saul persecuted Christians, while Paul loved them and was one of them. The name Saul means "head and shoulders" while Paul or Paulus means, "small" or "little" so as a way to proclaim his new found faith he demoted himself from superiority to inferiority.

Whatever the case, Paul made a small change that spoke to the biggest change in his life. He was a new person redeemed by the blood of the lamb and that small alteration to his life was evidence to the bigger ways he'd grown.

Now, I'm not advocating that everyone change their name, but remember that change is constant and that we are constantly transforming into the people that God wants us to be. We are an unfinished work that is being refined each day. So especially now, in the moments when the transition is visible, take advantage of it. Ask yourself who you want to be, pray for God to reveal who He wants you to be, and then do something about it.

3. Sitting in silence is not the same as being lazy.

Our generation (millenial/digital native) has the shortest attention span to date due to the accessibility of information. The immediacy of everything now-a-days has reduced our ability to have any sort of patience and especially now, with summer right at our feet, it's easy to feel restless when we have so much time on our hands.

There was a time in my life when God literally stripped everything away from me and forced me to realize how I was prone to filling up my free time with busy work. I disguised it with my own justification that I was being "productive" but the truth is I was just trying to fill the silence because I felt so uncomfortable in it. I felt like if I wasn't doing something I was wasting time.

But then God showed me just how beautiful the silence could be and how necessary it is to just sit in God's presence and soak it all up. I wrote in my journal,

"I live for the quiet moments. I used to fill in the silence with people and activities, feeling like I was wasting time with nothing to do. But I find now that I yearn for those sweet silences ...I don’t feel so enclosed anymore. Instead I feel safe and comfortable, like I’m part of the big picture and not trapped under a pile of its pieces. ....there is this serenity that I’ve never felt before.

                  With the television off, the windows open, and just the sound of our steady breathing, I feel like I can think. Like I can exhale after five years of holding it all in. So, I live for those silences. The silences that God fills with Himself."

It's really easy to fill up the day with things to do. It's natural, especially in the US, to just be "on-the-go" at all times. To take on everything we can because that's the American mindset: we CAN do everything. But I think the hard thing to remember is: we don't have to.

At this point in time, if you have some free time to enjoy the summer, to enjoy the quiet before life begins all over again, don't give it away. Don't think of it as bad. Enjoy it while it lasts and see it as a blessing to recharge, to relax, and to remember that you are never in it alone.

4. Being lazy is not the same as sitting in silence.

On the opposite side of that, it can also be very easy to sit idle, justifying yourself in your laziness as "enjoying the time off." But that's why practicing discernment is so important. You have to know the difference between being "at rest" and being "idle". They are not the same thing! While on one hand you may be taking the time to recharge, to prepare, to sit with God and converse with Him on what your next steps should be, on the other hand you're watching Netflix instead of finishing that job application that you've been promising yourself you would do sometime in the last few months and the deadline is tomorrow.

When I say sit in silence and enjoy your resting period, I'm not advocating you sit and completely be a couch potato. No! Haha, I'm saying that you give yourself a break, that you let yourself and your heart come to a nice steady pace and not put so much pressure to just race from one thing to the next. But that means actually planning out some things.

In Philippians 4, it says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, And there the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (vs. 6-7)

Here in this passage, Paul tells us that God has given us the freedom to not be anxious because He will take care of us, but with that we must be ACTIVE in our prayer and praise. We must be in conversation with God, letting Him know what our concerns, what our desires, our hopes and our fears are, which will then be rewarded with peace. So we can't just sit and wait for things to happen (though sometimes it can happen).

No, if we really are going to sit and trust that God will take care of the things we're preparing for and worried about, we have to be willing to share with Him what those things are. Not because He doesn't already know, but...because that's what being in a relationship with Him is, sharing life.

In 2nd Chronicles, Jehoshaphat is the fourth king of Judah and a man of God who brought peace to the land out of his love and devotion to the Lord. In chapter 20, he hears from some of his people that the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some of the Meunites are coming to attack and he knows that he doesn't have the man power to battle them. So he rallies his entire country to turn to the Lord and pray.

Jehoshaphat was a man of great faith. He probably trusted without a doubt that God would protect them, that God would save them. But he didn't just brush it off and say, "Ah, no worries. I've got God on my side. God knows what's going down." No. He prayed and not only that, he got EVERYONE to pray. That's what it is to trust and rest in your faith of God's ability, without being a lazy bum.

5. God is in every chapter and He allows others to be there too.

Later on in Philippians 4, Paul writes, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (vs.11-12)

He was talking to the church pf Philippians, thanking them for their concern for him. They were praying for him as he struggled to share the gospel with more and more cities. Paul was often times transitioning from one place to the next doing what he felt God was calling him to do and facing trials at almost every turn. He says in vs. 15, "You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only." He was thanking them for their support and yet still encouraged them. He recounted how their support in tandem with the lack of support of others allowed him to experience God's goodness at an even greater intensity because he knew what it was like to be loved and hated, to be overwhelmingly blessed and still crippled by need and yet he saw God's grace in all of it.

That's what that next phase for all of us will be. A transition into a new reality that will sometimes be full of blessing and full of trial. But in everything, God is still good. God sustains. God is there.

So as you go wherever it is you're heading next, remember the people who are rooting for you, the people who are praying for you and actively praying for your success, your joy, your comfort in spite of all the people you meet who might tear you down.

And remember that in the midst of it all, God is there. You will never be without His presence and because of that you will sustained.

How amazing is that? So, enjoy your transition. Spend as much time with God as you can and I can guarantee (from experience) that you will always be surprised by the blessing of God's faithfulness.