Do you all remember getting your report card every nine weeks in grade school? I would work hard each term to make good grades so I could receive my mother’s praise or that extra $5.00 as a reward. I recall the last nine weeks of the year being the best! Summer was coming, I would get a school break, and I would even be moved to the next grade level. It was a new season of life. Sometimes I was so excited to move to the next grade, but often times I was also afraid of this move. Would I be good enough? Would they like me? Would I know anyone? Would I make friends? Could I handle the work? There were so many things that were unknown.
Well, friends, in nine weeks I will complete seminary and transition into a season of life that I have never fully experienced. No more summer grade school breaks. No more semester academic report cards. Career, family, relationships, dreams, goals, business, slowing metabolism, my 30’s, friendships, children, work, full time ministry. The unknown, yet known list continues.
I ask myself: “Kit, how do I put transitions into perspective?”
One of the first images I think about is a spider web. This year spider webs have been all over Berkeley, California and I have walked into quite a few. When I walk into the spider web it is because I have not seen it coming. I get tangled in it. They cover my head, hands, and sometimes, additional parts of my clothing and body. It really does turn into a mess! Do I allow life transitions to imitate walking into the mess of a spider web? Do I walk into the web of life and allow myself to get tangled in an unhealthy way?
I ask myself: “Kit, how do I put transitions into healthy perspective?”
Isaiah 40: 28-31 is encouraging. “God will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
What I am realizing is that if we don’t give up something beyond ourselves can give us the strength to spread our wings like eagles in our families, career, and relationships. Eagles can fly up to 15,000 feet high for long periods of time without fainting because it is their strength and wingspan that propels them. My Scripture says that God has given us this type of strength to tap into. We don’t have to embrace the spider webs of life and get all tangled in the mess that can come with transitions.
In the midst of transition I encourage you to know that we never have to choose fear, confusion, hurt, and despair. If we trust in something beyond ourselves, I believe God has the power to assist us in living the “good life” that he has called us to. So spread those wings and move forward in this season of life!