Lessons in Transitions

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.

1. 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.
2. Hurry Up and Wait: I was so impatient when I finally got to the book of Joshua. Moses was dead. The Israelites were literally staring at the promised land they had been told about, and yet they continued to have to exercise patience. They were told to take three days to get their provisions ready (Joshua 1:11 NIV). They sent spies ahead to survey the land, then had to wait for them to return (Joshua 2 NIV). So much waiting when they’d already been waiting forty years. When we’ve transitioned—even when we knew exactly where we were going, the house we wanted, or thought everything was packed—we always had moments of “hurry up and wait.” There’s always one more thing you didn’t think of, some delay, or some complication. Even when it seems like it’s time to go, we have to be patient waiting for God to line everything up for the actual move forward.
3. Watch Carefully as You Go: When the Israelites finally got moving, they were given these instructions: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God…you are to follow it. Then you will know which way to go since you have never been this way before.” (Joshua 3:3-4 NIV). In our own transitions, once we were finally on our way, I just wanted to charge ahead. Just get there. Figure it out once we arrived. Don’t stop to pee or pray. He already said we were going, so couldn’t we just get there? I imagine the Israelites might have felt much the same way, and yet God’s message once again was, “Slowly. Watch me. Listen. You’ve never been this way before.” We need to follow as he leads. God is never in a hurry, and it behooves us not to be, either.
4. Once You Transition, You Still May Have a Battle: In my limited human mind, after all the waiting and preparation, I felt like the Israelites should have just been able to enter the long-awaited promised land smoothly. Everybody who was in their way should be gone, the road smooth, the beds made upon arrival. But even in a God-ordained transition, they encountered opposition. They came up against people who made their lives hard. They had to fight even though God had led them there. Promised lands are not always conflict-free, sin-free, obstacle-free paradises. But they are where God is with you. May we be confident in following him even when the going is hard.

I don’t know what transition you may be facing in your life. Maybe it’s a move; maybe it’s a job transition; maybe it’s a family shake-up or a health concern. Whatever transition you face next, I hope these considerations from one of the biggest transitions of God’s people are helpful.

Anne Rulo is an author, speaker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist and veteran coach’s wife. She and her husband Tim have two children and are passionate about reaching people for Christ and sharing information on coaching, marriage, family, and mental health. Read more from Anne at www.annerulo.com.

Photograph © Brett Jordan, used with permission