Transitions – Navigating Through Life

September 27, 2020
Last message at Cornerstone before moving to PA. You can watch it here.

tran·si·tion
the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
mid 16th century: from French, or from Latin transitio, from transpire, ‘go across’.
Transitions – life is full of them. They can be very stressful.

Moving to PA

I’ve been thinking about this topic because of our own significant transition this year, moving to PA. There are lists of life’s most stressful events, and we are on that list for a number of reasons: I retired from my long time job at VU, we sold our house, and will be leaving in two days to prepare to move into our new house in a couple weeks.

There have been stresses, but the LORD has been very good to us during this time. A little history:
Our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren live in PA, about 25 minutes from our new house. Our daughter has been talking to us for a couple years about moving out there so that she can help us more as we get older.

Last fall, we felt that the Lord was indeed calling us to move there, so we started to prepare by selling and organizing things. In early March, we traveled there to meet with our realtor and look for houses. On our way home from that trip, the coronavirus outbreak happened, the real estate market in PA basically closed down along with everything else. The stock market plunged and our IRA with it, so our transition was put on hold.

Jeremiah

My first thought: put the move on hold until the virus is under control, the financial markets come back, and things get back to “normal”. Then the Lord showed me Jeremiah 32. Setting: the Babylonians have besieged Jerusalem. Jeremiah has been prophesying that the city would fall, and the people would go into captivity, but that they should submit to the Babylonians. He was put in prison because of that message. While he is still in prison, during the siege, God tells him to buy a field. Why? As a sign that this crisis would pass, fields and houses would be purchased here again, normal times will return.

Insights and directions the Lord gave me:
Siege – corresponds to the virus.
Prison – corresponds to the lockdown/quarantine
Our response – pursue our plans to move, to buy a house in PA. Go on with life, and our plans, believing that “normal” would return someday.

Decision: Go!

In obedience to what we felt the Lord telling us, we moved ahead. Our realtor had suggested a builder, who was able to start up their business in late April. We signed the purchase agreement in early May. The stock market started going back up, the demand for housing took off, and with the
help of Debbie Rasala, we sold our house quickly for a great price. Bottom line, the Lord has blessed us abundantly in every detail of this process.
I’d like to share some things we have learned, and look at how to handle transitions of all kinds. We all have them.

Examples
Abraham – Genesis 12:1 Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
Joseph – 17 years old when sold into slavery, promotion to Pharoah’s service at age 30, 13 years.
David – anointed to be king at age 17, became king at age 30, 13 years.
Jesus – The ultimate transition. From his Father’s right hand to become a human on this sinful planet, suffering a criminal’s death, then rising from the dead and ascending back to his Father. Philippians 2
Our country today – virus, election, hurricane, violence, divisions
Ultimately, elections and politics aren’t the answer.
Psalm 146:3 Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.

Principles for Transitioning

Transitions can be our choice, some may just happen, or God may orchestrate them, like Joseph and David. How do we react during transitions, especially difficult ones? What is our posture and position toward God?
Perspective: our life on this earth is one big transition. We are strangers, aliens, waiting to transition into our true home, the new heavens and the new earth. Hebrews 11:13-16
Obedience to God regardless of our fears, our own wisdom, or advice from others. Abraham obeyed God, and was called “friend of God”. Jesus “learned obedience” through his suffering. He became obedient to the point of death on the cross. Phil. 2:8

Transitions require preparation. We prepared to sell our house, move our possessions. Purging things. Like we did before selling our house.
Proverbs 30:8-9: Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need. Otherwise, I might have too much and deny you, saying, “Who is the Lord?” or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God.
This has an application spiritually as well.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Lay aside every encumbrance – can be good things, but things that hinder our walk with God. Can be different things for everyone.
Sin that so easily entangles us – ask God to show us our sins.

Ps.32:5 (David) I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Ps 90:8 (Moses) You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
Ps 139:23-24 (David) Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Waiting – Isaiah 40, they that wait on (for) the Lord will renew their strength. (see article on Waiting)

The Wilderness Experience

This is referred to many times in the Bible. Moses and people, Elijah, Jesus’ temptation, John the Baptist. Characteristics of the wilderness: very few possessions, alone, ONLY GOD. Can be physical wilderness, prison (Joseph), or even psychological. For many, especially elderly and single people, the virus and resulting lockdowns/quarantines have been a wilderness experience.
Kathy and I are entering a wilderness, as it sometimes takes 2 years or more to really feel at home in a new community.

David experienced this. He was in danger from Saul, from the Philistines, and had to move around a lot. On two occasions he had a chance to take matters in his own hands by killing Saul, but he refused to harm God’s anointed one. He was willing to wait even longer to do it God’s way.
David spent years in his wilderness experience.

Psalm 63 – Keys to Waiting

V. 1. Seek God, be thirsty for Him, pursue His presence. Desire Him more than anything. If we don’t feel the desire, ask Him to put it in us!
V. 2. Gaze on him, through the Word, prayer. Direct our attention to Him, meditate on Him, consider him. That will increase our thirst for Him.

V. 3-5. Praise Him, glorify Him, with our lips, out loud.
V. 6. Routine – I meditate on you on my bed, during the night watches. Find times and places and dedicate them to seeking him. In our old house, we had the “upper room”. We won’t have a 2nd floor in our new one, but we’ll have a dedicated room (maybe the “inner room”? “Prayer closet”?)

Meditating – not emptying of our minds like eastern religion meditation, but filling our minds with thoughts of God. David, “when I remember and meditate on YOU”.
V. 7. YOU have been my help – remembering what God has done. Remembering – so important. Remember how I brought you out of Egypt.
Shadow of your wings – what a picture of God’s care and guardianship of us. Like a mother bird sheltering her chicks.

Psalm 91:1-2 He who dwells in the shelter (secret place) of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
V. 8. Follow close to him. Jesus said “follow me”. Your RIGHT HAND holds on to me.

I believe that the RIGHT HAND in the Old Testament always refers to Jesus. It signifies the outworking of God’s power, God’s right hand, Jesus, created the world, came to earth as a man, redeemed us, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. As you read the Psalms and prophets, make note of how many times you see that phrase and think of Jesus. He is the “golden thread” throughout the Old Testament, although not specifically mentioned by name. And He holds on to us.

Bottom Line

In every situation, every transition, He has our backs! He has us covered! Psalm 131: a Psalm of David, cultivating a childlike heart, with total dependence and reliance on God
John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Do you see how David was so consumed with God, pursued him, worshiped him, trusted him, rested in his presence, that he got through his wilderness transition?

And can you see how much God cares about us, his children, and even in the most difficult of times, spreads his shadow over us? Never leaves us or forsakes us? Loves us with an everlasting love? Keeps us in His hand for all eternity?
Remember Chris Birky’s spectrum, selfishness on one side where everything is all about us. Self righteousness on the other side, where we depend on our own works, our own strength, to please God and get through life. Let’s go to the middle as Chris challenged us, like David, pursuing Him, resting in Him, worshiping Him, trusting Him.