Troublesome Topic: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSITIONS IN OUR LIVES

Times of transition can be tricky. They afford us the opportunity to take steps forward, or they bring danger of making big mistakes.

When I was a pastor and I was asked to perform a wedding ceremony, I would tell the wedding party that the transitional parts of the ceremony were the times when most mistakes were made. As you know, there are a number of moving pieces in a wedding ceremony. Once people are in place things are usually okay until they have to move again, because, in my experience, that’s when most mistakes are made. Someone can turn left instead of right, stop too early, go too far, not move when they should move, too many people move, and the possibilities for errors goes on. For these reasons, I always had the wedding party practice the movements and transitions more than anything else.

It is the same in our daily lives. Transitions are important, and they offer us opportunities to make changes that take us in a positive, or negative direction. Stress tests indicate that any major change in life, such as moving to a different house or changing jobs, is a source of stress for us.

Therefore, we need to prepare for the transitional times before they arrive. For example, the ancient Israelites had to prepare for the arrival of the Sabbath day by preparing food ahead of time, so they did not need to cook on the Sabbath.

Now I ask you to think with me about some times of transition that are important for spiritual reasons and how we should prepare for them. I will not give you all my thoughts about each one; I will simply list them and I ask you to think about what is required in order to be ready for each of these transitions.

The transition into marriage

The transition from being childless, to the birth of the first child

The transition from being able to do things for ourselves to the limitations of old age

The transition from running away from God to running toward God

The transition from being alive in this physical body to death

Maybe God crafted the narrative of the beginning of all physical things so as to include an emphasis on transitional periods so we would see their importance and learn to prepare for them.