Transition

There is an old saying that says that there are only two definite things in life; death and taxes.  I would like to add one more. Transition.  From the day we are born into this world our lives are moment by moment transitions.  We go from cooing to laughing to speaking our first word to an average vocabulary of around 20,000 words.  We crawl , then walk, and then run.  For boys we get excited about finally being able to shave but then transitioning to shaving every day. These are simply natural transitions that are a part of our lives.

There are a few that we have a hard time dealing with: divorce of parents or our own marriage failure; the death of parents or a spouse; loss of job, home, health, or finances. I talked with a woman the other day that had just lost her husband after 61 years of marriage.  These are painful and very hard to cope with.  I’m sure one comes to mind as you have read these words. They require times of grieving.

There is one other type of transition that I want to address.  It is the area of transitions that are good but sometimes we fail to grieve correctly.  Every good change in life has both a gain and a loss to it.  For example the day that you teenager becomes a high school graduate.  We celebrate the accomplishment but also must know that the days of childhood and dependence on parents are ending and the graduate is transitioning from being a teenager to a man or woman. A grieving needs to take place.  When a single person marries there is a very real loss of the independent single person who becomes one with the spouse and he/she is no longer alone.  The loss of the single life needs to be grieved in order to move on into a healthy relationship in the marriage.

JoLynn and I are in a transition right now.  We are moving on to pastor a great church in Galena Kansas.  We are excited about the opportunity that God is giving us.  But we are also aware that we are saying goodbye to good friends and loved ones in Ulysses.  In order for us to move forward in a healthy way we must grieve the loss that is taking place here in Ulysses knowing that it is right for us to allow ourselves to grieve.

We can all think of people who are still living in that moment of transition.  When we refuse to grieve and ignore the pain and the reality of the change taking place, we rob ourselves of the life God has awaiting us.

What transition do you need to grieve today?