“For
the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
Why
do people go to the circus? To eat peanuts and popcorn? Although those tastes
and smells will always pleasantly associate with it, we don't go for that. We
go for the thrills. We pay good money to watch the man let go of the trapeze bar,
not hang on to it. We pay to see him hanging in midair so we can see what
happens next.
Transition is a wonderful, scary and
inevitable occurrence in our human existence. Change is normal, although we
never get used to it. And when the transitions are momentous enough, we wind up
wearing them like a tattoo on our forearms, or like a scar. We will frequently
touch those places and remember.
Every transitional episode is unique; no two
are remotely alike, except that we remember the swirl of unknowing that
experienced because we didn't know what was on the other side of the
transition. On the front end of the transition we know that our world was going
to be rearranged in a way that would make it recognizable but different.
And there's no guarantee that you'll be a
better person because of the transition. If you want to transition gracefully
and optimally, they usually require your utmost concentration and cooperation.
To miss the lessons latent in the transition could result in taking another lap
around the same track. Stay focused or it could hurt.
The above scripture passage is a statement by
the writer to establish the fact that we need to listen. However, in our 21st
Century frame of mind, we get the mistaken impression that this verse is
referring to the authority of scripture and how we need to pay attention to
scripture and let it speak authoritatively to our lives. But we've become so
historically distanced from the original writing that we forget that the only
scripture that existed was the Old Testament. In fact the writer is, in his
teaching advancing the cause of Christianity by building a type of bridge from
the Old Testament, and giving his hearers (not readers) something that will
allow them to make a more grace-ful transition into a full blown embrace of the
New Covenant. And the 'word of God' that's being referred to is not a what but
a who. The word of God is Jesus Himself, not a body of writing. To frame it
correctly, listen to Martin Luther, who said that "The Bible is the manger
in which the Word of God was laid."
What this implies, is that following Jesus is
relationally-driven, not principle-driven. When Jesus said to follow him, I bet
that he meant it quite literally! And while scripture is so vital in
understanding what it means to follow him, it doesn't cover all the bases with
regard to the minutiae of our lives. It doesn't explain what what we're
supposed to do when we grown up, or who we're supposed to marry, or even which
socks to wear on Friday(if any at all). To 'fill in the blanks' between what
scripture tells us and what it doesn't tell us, we need to be in vital and
intimate communication with the Word of God.
If it were as easy as it sounds everyone
would do it. Because God so seldom speaks audibly (like almost never) we have
to learn how to 'hear' His voice. And, when we're in a major transition, we
find ourselves in a kind of brand new crash course of discernment.
Let me relate an epic transition in my own
life. Its duration was approximately 8 months in duration. I was living in Kansas
City. I had been the senior leader in a mid town church that my wife and I
helped to build from scratch. When I graduated from Seminary I became the
senior leader and had a wonderful time serving the congregation. At the end of
those six years we felt a definite call to take care of my wife's aged parents,
who lived in California. She was their only child and we felt strongly that we
were supposed to do that when the time came. We actually made a promise to them
when we were first married. So when that call came we knew that a big
transition was in the offing. We wanted to do this right, because there was
more to the story than just us and her parents.
We spent several months making sure we
carefully communicated this new 'call' to our church family back in Kansas
City. We started by asking a few choice people to discreetly pray with us,
asking God to confirm this call, and for a grace that would go before us as we
let wider levels of our church leadership in on this move. By the time I
announced this news to the whole congregation, the ground had been laid with
key prayer partners, senior leadership, church board, and finally with the
whole church family on a Sunday morning in the beginning of May. By this time,
almost no one was surprised or shocked, so I felt like I did a great job in
bringing my church along in the transition. We resigned with blessing and their
hearty approval. They didn't want us to go, but they completely understood the
mission we had.
The next step in the process was to put our
house on the market and sell it. After all, the Lord told us to sell our house
and move to California (remember that line for later). So we listed our house
with a friend who is an excellent realtor, and we waited. We also started to
stage our belongings in preparations for moving. Our car lost its spot in the
garage and the garage became our storage unit for the various things that we
already boxed up.
And we waited. Nothing happened. The house
showed nicely, but no offers were forthcoming. We were a bit disappointed, but
figured that this is part of the process. Things of this magnitude didn't
always work out on your schedule and according to your definition of
convenience. May quickly turned into June. I no longer had a paycheck. Right
then some friends of ours, proposed that I do some construction projects on
their vintage house in the Valentine District. So I didn't think it would hurt
to take on some small projects to fill the time and to have some income while
we waited for the house to sell.
The first project was a back deck. I'd never
built one before, but I figured it couldn't be that hard. So I took
measurements, bought the materials and built the deck. And, for the most part,
the deck was a huge success! I felt quite accomplished.
But the house didn't sell by the end of the
deck. Hmmmmm. We thought for sure the house should have sold by then, but
hadn't. Our friends found other work. This time I actually 'hired' my wife to
help with demolition and clean up. This project was much more ambitious. It involved
painting, restoring the dilapidated staircase and completely refinishing the
downstairs wooden floors. This job lasted several weeks and was rewarding and
it looked great. In addition, I re-tiled and grouted the downstairs fireplace,
kind of like lipstick on the makeover. Everything looked wonderful and I was
quite proud of myself. And the income, while we were in transition, kept
rolling in. Now we were into July. The bills were paid, food was on the table
and life was good.
But no sale on the house. In fact, the
potential buyers were drying up. We were hardly getting any foot traffic any
more. Our realtor assured us that our house was a good house, in a good
neighborhood, at a good price. We just scratched out heads. We prayed a little
complainingly: God, we thought you told us to move? What's going on? Our
friends, who liked my work, suggested that we take on one more project. This
time I would act as a sort-of general contractor, because it required more
expertise than I possessed. I was to enclose a long-neglected sun porch that
had completely fallen into disrepair. And, instead of screens, I was going to
make it into a beautiful indoor sun room and panel the windows with glass panes.
It would made a lovely addition to the house and preserve the vintage look and
feel of the house.
For this I actually had to get permission
from the city fathers. Since this was an historical neighborhood, the
powers-that-be were particular about any changes that occurred that might
detract from the vintage lines and appearances. I explained what I wanted to do
downtown, and I answered their questions about the construction. I guess
whatever I said made them happy, because the project was approved.
This project was more of a professionally
executed one, rather than a glorified DIY'er. For it I brought in a framing
carpenter, a professional electrician, and a landscaper. There was no plumbing
on the inside of the structure but there was a need to address a drainage issue
in the yard adjacent to the structure which was causing water to seep in
through the basement wall. Nice big 24" X 48" glass panels were
installed. In all there 9 panels, three on each side of the structure. Lots and
lots of light now poured into the soon-to-be sun room. I sheet rocked and taped
and mudded and sanded and painted the ceiling and the walls. I put ceramic
tiles on the floor. The electrician also installed some lovely recessed lights
in the space for evening use. At the end of the project I surveyed it with a
sense of satisfaction and pride. I'd turned something that was useless and an
eyesore into something beautiful as well as functional. And the owners, my
friends, were very pleased. When they had to sell their lovely home years
later, because of a new job in another part of the country, that little room
contributed to an easier home sale in Kansas City.
By now it was getting into late September and
my wife, Fatima, and I were really wondering what was going on. Had we
understood God's voice? Did he really give us the green light to move to
California? Had we missed anything, like a crucial piece of the puzzle or a
clue that might have kept this prolonged transition from happening?
That is the nature of the beast, these
significant transitions. They are an experience all to their own. No two are
alike. Each has their own unique characteristics and ways of unfolding and
evolving. You can't buy a 'transition kit' on Ebay or Amazon. Neither can you
make them happen faster that they should happen, at least not without doing
damage, and perhaps irreparable harm to yourself, your dreams, your goals, in
the process. Maybe the best human analogy is that of a pregnancy. You don't
usually decided when the baby comes out. To be sure, science knows the
approximate number of days and weeks necessary for the proper gestation of the
infant developing in the womb. They can take ultrasounds and see what's going
on inside. They can sample amniotic fluid to determine or anticipate issues
arising in the pregnancy. But they still can't tell you the day of the
delivery. They certainly can't tell you where you'll be or what you'll be
doing. The best they can do is tell you to be prepared and to stay healthy.
Ultimately the baby comes when the baby comes.
Transitions are processes, like pregnancies,
that have a life of their own. We can't make anything happen. We can only stay
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy in the period and be ready. We
can say things about the general nature of transitions, but we cannot speak
with certainty to the particular nature and timing(s) of each individual one.
So we are really becoming concerned. We were
SURE we were following the Holy Spirit's leading. We were making preparations.
We were ready. We felt kind of like a rifle marksman on the shooting range,
under command not to fire until given the order. "Ready . . . . aim . . .
. aim . . . . . ready . . . . . aim. . . . . When was the order going to come
to 'pull the trigger' on this move?
Then, one morning in very late September, I
was praying about this whole thing. While I was processing this before the
Lord, a Bible story jumped into my head: it was the story of the transition of
the Israelites from the wilderness to their promised land. Thy the story can be
found in Joshua, chapter 3. God gave instructions about how to proceed across
the Jordan River, which, by the way, was overflowing its banks at flood stage.
God instructed them how to line up, and which groups went in what order. At the
head of the procession were the priests, carrying the ark of the covenant. They
were going to be the first in the water. We have a tendency to see this story
through the lens of history and not faith. What I mean is, we tend to lose a
sense of real appreciation for what these people were being asked to do.
They didn't have a bridge to walk across.
They were going to walk through it. Granted, they'd done something similar at
the Red Sea. But not these people in particular. It was their parents and
grandparents who had walked across the floor of the Red Sea as if it were dry
land. This was going to be a brand new experience for this generation. And
while it had to have helped to know and remember the story their parents and
grandparents told them about the crossing, it was not the same thing as doing
it for themselves. To top it off, the river was in flood stage, which mean lots
of extra water was coursing in the normally manageable channel. But they were
determined to follow Joshua. They seemed to have a collective resolve not to
mess this one up. Whatever God told them to do they were going to do it, even
though the only instructions God gave them was to start walking toward the
river.
Of course what happened was miraculous.
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying
the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood
stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark
reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water
from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at
a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to
the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the
people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark
of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on
dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the
crossing on dry ground.
They walked in obedience and God provided the
miracle. The same thing that happened for previous generations, God did again,
this time at the entryway to their promised land. Anyway, this story, as I
mentioned, jumped into my head. I was fixed on the part where it said soon as
the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the
water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. This seemed to
be a holy moment. There was something about the story that was having a ripple
effect in our processing of this whole move. Could it be that God was telling
us something by highlighting this story. Sure enough I sensed the Holy Spirit
speaking to my spirit. He seemed to be saying, I didn't tell you to wait until
you sell the house. I told you to move to California. To be sure, selling the
house was important, but moving to California was the main thing.
Really? Could this be the answer to the
question, the piece to the puzzle to key to the map? I have to admit, I was
pretty stirred up by this. I prayerfully shared with Fatima what I thought God
might be saying to us. She didn't laugh or dismiss it as a figment of my
imagination. After praying about it, we both concluded that this story was
being commandeered to help us with our story. We resolved together that if our
house did not sell by the end of September, then we were simply going to move
and leave the house unsold. This was not formulaic or a kit we purchased from
the Home Depot. This seemed to be a genuine, supernatural case of God's
guidance and instruction, albeit an 'adapted screenplay' borrowed from the Good
Book.
We called the moving Van that we had
contracted way back in June after getting numerous bids. We told them we were
ready to move and that the 15th of October would be a perfect time to load out
household effects and make the trip to CA. So we were definitely moving. Our
house was not sold. We were going to move in faith that God had spoken.
A funny thing happened right then and there.
Less than a week passed after we both had resolved to move now rather than wait
for the house to sell, after we decided, with God's help, to make this lead of
faith and simply start 'marching toward the river'. Within that week somebody
came, looked at the house, fell in love with it, made an acceptable offer and
bought our house! Lucky coincidence? I think not! It indeed seems that, as soon
as our feet touched the water, God performed the miracle. We loaded the moving
van, said our goodbyes to friends and neighbors and headed down the road in our
car. By the way, I failed to mention that, in this process, we were able to
purchase a new-to-us car that had no rust/cancer that was endemic of a Kansas
City car. We were driving out in a beautiful new-ish vehicle. And the best
thing was that it was paid for in cash from working all summer on our friends'
house, waiting for God to make this transition happen.
We pulled on to Highway 101 two days before
Halloween. We arrived in our new geographical home a half hour later. The next
day we signed the sale papers on the house with the help of a local realtor and
a state of the art fax machine. On to this new adventure that lay ahead of us.
We had no more idea what lay ahead in this new season than we did in the
previous one. We only knew that we walked with a gracious and faithful Friend
who had every intention of seeing that we got to where we were supposed to go and
do what we were supposed to do, for as long as we were supposed to do it. That
is, until the next transition comes.
As a result of allowing this transition to
unfold and evolve the way it did, our faith was strengthened and our trust
deepened. I write here now, poised at the brink of yet another significant
transition, a really consequential transition. I don't know how its going to
work out. The only thing I do know is that it will have a life of its own, that
I can't buy a kit from the store, and that I must stay spiritually and
emotionally healthy while this 'baby' is delivered. And I am ready to 'walk
into the water' or 'let go of the bar'. I know there's something on the other
side of this river, there's going to be something to grab on to that's solid
and rewarding.
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