February 13

Day 246: Transitions

I've been asked to meet up for breakfast this morning with a dear friend, and some mutual friends. He is entering into a new phase of life. From public servant to private business person. I've been asked to come prepared to speak into this.

So it has me up early on a Saturday morning, thinking about transitions. Some we enter into gladly (marriage, parenthood.) Other transitions are forced upon us, even against our will (getting older.) And this causes me to remember one of my own.

I was a student ministry pastor for 13+ years. Loved it. Was good at it. And then, in the 90's, I entered into a significant transition. From pastor to business man. (With a lot of backstory for another time.)

My identity did not keep up. For maybe four years into my marketplace role I still saw myself as "pastor." It finally took me flying back home one evening at 32,000 feet, and hearing directly from the Spirit: Move on! What you do is not who you are! Never was!

With that, I came to see I had entered a new phase in my multi-year transition. I had already entered that season of change with a "summons to prepare." Meaning, I had known God had earlier told me to get ready for something. I couldn't initially see what it was, but I learned later that it was His master plan for me.

This was followed by a time of preparation. Most of that didn't have much to do with what I had done as a pastor, my education and experience, at least from what I could see. But it did. We relocated out of state. I met new people, and gained new skills and experiences.

And it may be that this "space between dreams" is the most important time we are given. It's where God can do some serious work in us, while we're busy working on new things.

At a certain point, God opened doors, and my work life looked very different from the previous years. And I liked it. In fact, there were elements of this new life that I liked better than the previous.

Ten years later I looped back to being a vocational pastor. I've had more than one significant transition in my life. Likely true for you two. And I have some thoughts on that.

Each time we transition from a former thing to a new thing, our employment for example, there is a tendency in us to want to transact, if not barter with God. Something like, "If you make this new life happen for me; If you make me good at what I am now doing, I promise I'll be good to You in return."

Going deeper, the real tendency any of us have in a season of transaction is to wonder who we are in the midst of it. At times we feel as if we've lost our way. Because we tend to pin our identities on what we do, the roles we have, the successes and failures that come our way.

However, and we know this, our identities are never built on what we do. Galatians 2:20 says this clearly.

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Not every transition goes well. Not every decision that preceded a transition was sound. Other times, it all goes quite well. But it's not the beginning, the process, nor the result that has ultimate bearing on who I am, or who you are.

I am, and you are the ones for whom Jesus Christ gave Himself. So by faith (and not by role or productivity or success) we are connected to Him. He lives in me. And He lives in you.

I am who I am, you are who you are, because Jesus is and did what He did. Our identities are found, rooted and established in Him.

Even in, especially in the midst of transitions.