Transitioning

I was praying and meditating over Joel, when God showed me a picture of myself being taken by the arm and guided over to a line on the floor where Jesus told me to stand right behind the line~~ just the way Pat Sajak does when he takes the winner of Wheel of Fortune over to the line to stand for the final puzzle.  After positioning myself behind the line,  I looked up and saw that the letters on the board spelled “transitioning”.  That was all I saw and all I heard, but it spoke clearly and firmly to our present circumstances.

We are in a place of transition, and being challenged with becoming who God is calling us to be in this “senior season” of our lives.  It has at times been amazing and at other times it has been very difficult.  As I pondered what Holy Spirit had shown me, I heard the words that have come to me for Joel so often this year ~ “For such a time as this you have been created”.  (Esther 14).  It is helpful for us as we walk the "road less traveled".

We have been struggling a great deal with feeling like we don’t completely fit into the faith communities we are a part of.  We have found ourselves responding or reacting to the need to define or defend who we are.  This need to defend has distracted us from where God has placed us and what He is doing in us.  It took us awhile to realize that this is not about other people and their thoughts or beliefs, it is about us.  It is about a transition and new birth under the Master’s hands.  When you surrender all to God and ask for “more” He takes that seriously.
 

When I thought about the word transition I went immediately back in my mind to the Gospel Tabernacle in Duluth Minnesota.  The year was 1972 and Joel was forecasting weather for the pilots at the Duluth Air Force Base.  During this time we went to a Lutheran church Sunday mornings, and often with friends on Sunday night to the Tabernacle, a church connected to the Assembly of God denomination.  From there my mind jumped to the Philippines where we attended an inter-denominational church and were part of the Baptist Serviceman’s club off base from 1974-76.  I also belonged to a beautiful group of around 40 women during that time who came together once a week to worship, share, and pray.  There were women from many denominations and I know now that many had their own prayer language and believed in healing. It was there that I experienced my first healing through prayer.  Through that group of women, I saw prayers answered in powerful ways.  For others and for ourselves.  

Looking back I could see the path we had followed and how all those experiences had been quietly and firmly guided by God as He shaped us.  They came together in 2012, 40 years after God instilled in us the desire for something more, when we were healed through prayer from Lyme, and given our own prayer languages.  Our lives were shaken to the core, and it sent us on a quest for all that is offered by our God.   The quest has brought us to yet another season of transition for “such a time as this” now in 2016, 40 years after leaving the women's prayer group behind in The Philippines.

One friend mentioned to me that 40 is a significant number in the Bible. I had not thought of that, but I am receiving it as we wait with expectation and to be honest, some weariness for God to guide our next step. 

It has been a tough year that came together into a perfect storm.  Searching for God's guidance in the midst of it has had Joel saying no to several opportunities, and also has me stepping down from The Knee Team prayer group that I have facilitated for several years.  Some things seem to be ending for us and today I realized that these endings are opportunities for new beginnings.  

"What we call the beginning

is often the end

And to make an end is to

make a beginning

The end is where we start from

T.S. Eliot

We need to focus on hearing God's voice and trust Him in the process.  We need to rest in His hands and let Him "fight for us".  Let Him close doors, and open others while be willing to let go and start anew.

We all go through times of transition in our lives. Our hope is to come through stronger, wiser, and closer to God.  It is not often easy, it is not always fun.  It is, however, necessary as we lean into God and transition into who He calls us to be.