Your transition moment

David spent his youth taking care of his father’s sheep in the outback, but on the day when he visited the battleground during a time of national crisis, he didn’t take his sheep along. He didn’t bring his shepherd’s staff either. He only brought his weapon.With it he engaged the challenge facing his leaderless people and led them to victory.From that day on nobody thought of him as a shepherd. He was David, the warrior.

He used this transition opportunity to completely reorient and relaunch his life.After that day he never went back to tending sheep.

Message: Life presents us with these transition opportunities and sometimes there is not much time to decide whether to go for it or not. You have to have thought all that out before and know who you are in your deepest heart and what your core values are. When these moments come to you, there are some things you need to stop doing immediately if you are going to get to the future that’s knocking on your door. It won’t take a number and wait. You have to be ready to go “all in” and let go of the vine you have been swinging on to take hold of a new unknown that is full of potential…..or not. It all depends on you really.

Life In-Between Chapters

author: Pastor Terry Ross

I once read some tremendously insightful words that have helped me understand the process of transitions in life and in leadership: Healthy things grow; growing things change; changing things challenge us; challenging things force us to trust God; trust leads to obedience; obedience makes us healthy; and healthy things grow.

Growth, change, challenge, trust, obedience, health, growth – it all sounds like transition to me. At the age of 58, I have now experienced many life transitions – 37 years of marriage, the birth of 2 incredible daughters (talk about transitions!) and now 6 incredible grandkids, deaths of both parents, open heart surgery and the changes that came with that experience. Then there have been the many transitions in vocation through the years. These have helped me gain experiences (both good and bad), pick up knowledge and wisdom along the way, and survive some poor leadership models and also thrive under a couple of great leadership models.

Each of these transitions came with its own unique and often difficult challenges. However, for those of us who live to honor Christ, the challenges we face really do cause us to trust God with every decision and in every facet of our lives.

This is why at an early age I made my life’s scripture passage Proverbs 3:5-8. Listen to these verses from a modern translation called The Message//Remix:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to GOD! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health; your very bones will vibrate with life!

Transitions of many kinds are a guaranteed part of our lives. We need to understand that each of them holds possibilities for bringing positive change.

What transitions can you pinpoint in life that have helped develop the leader/person you are today?

How have you survived and/or thrived in your own transitions?