Transiting.

For anyone who has ever flown on long haul flights that require you to change mid-journey, you will be familiar with the signs on the concourse which reads, ‘Transit Passengers This Way’ Now if you are continuing to an onward destination, the transit lane will take you to your required terminal, and new departure lounge. At this point all other passengers, who have been your fellow travellers up until now, will exit at this particular airport. They will either go home, because that’s where they live, or, that’s where they begin their holiday or do business. But, you are transiting. You don’t get to leave the airport because you are just transiting through it to get to your final destination. 

Now, I think this is a metaphor for life in general and the Christian life in particular. Right now, we are all in transit to our final destination. From the day we were born until the day we die, we are transiting. You transit from babyhood to infancy, from infancy to puberty, from adolescence to adulthood. From youth to middle age to old age. From play-school to primary school, to high school to college, to university. From sweetheart to bride, to mother to grandmother. From baby Christian, to mature believer. From the milk, to the meat of the Word.  

Want to see transition? Look in the mirror! Look at your old passport photo! Look at your grandchildren! There you have it. Undeniable, unstoppable, inevitable, unavoidable. Now look into your heart. See any transitions there? Are you still what you used to be, or has the old gone and the new come? Some transitions in life are delightful and easy. Everything is plain sailing, just clicks into place, you hardly even notice. Others are painful and costly. They come with tears and trials. It’s a wrench, an imposition, a terrible upheaval. Some are simple, some are scary. Some are joyful, some are sad. The promotion comes. The redundancy notice arrives. The doctor gives the all clear. There’s a shadow on the x-ray that’s troubling. Some transitions are planned. Some come without warning. But, it is certain they will come. 

So, how are you coping with transition? Are you handling it well? David woke up one morning a keeper of sheep. Went to bed the same night a slayer of giants! From a nonentity to a national hero in twenty -four hours! The boy Samuel went to sleep one night in the Temple and woke up the next morning a prophet.  Saul went out looking one day for his father’s lost asses. Came back the king of Israel. Look to God in the transition. Times of transition stretch us, challenge us, excite us, ignite us. Spiritually it’s the same in times of transition. We are being emptied from vessel to vessel. God is in the process of maturing us. We haven’t reached our final destination yet. We are still transiting. 

- Pastor David Goudy