When I was younger, I was always eager for transition moments. I was always excited at the beginning of a new school year and always excited for school holidays. I was excited to go to university and then to Seminary. They were big moments which didn’t feel big at the time, they felt like the next thing that should be happening. But as I have grown a little older, I welcome those shifts less. Now I am more prepared to invest emotionally in aspects of my life. And when there is change, it comes with a sense of emotional disturbance or imbalance, which of course can be uncomfortable and means that I welcome change less eagerly.
Last March, when the world experienced a threat not seen for a generation, many of us seemed to see the changes as a novel thing. Many people welcomed the slower pace of life that lockdown brought, the weather was amazing (please can we have that back!) and many people saw lockdown as an opportunity for self-improvement. Personally, I hated the church being closed but appreciated other aspects of the lockdown. As the year has progressed many people have become weary of the restrictions and want some form of ‘normality’ to resume. Or do they? Do you? Really?
The Bible shows us time and time again that God is to be found in the transition moments of life. God freed the people of Israel from Egypt, something they had been longing for. When it happened, they couldn’t stop complaining that they had left behind the comfort of their captivity only to suffer in the desert. But when they finally made the uncomfortable transition, they came to a place of fulness and life.
For the Disciples the tumultuous transition of Holy week, where they saw Jesus crucified, die, and then rise from the dead, changed the world. As we sit in what might be an uncomfortable situation for us where we are not quite in what we have grown used to and not quite where we once were our faith can play a powerful role. By offering our situation and discomfort (if that is what we are feeling) to God in prayer gives Him an invitation to work His grace in our lives, to get in the cracks so to speak. And, our transition not only becomes a movement from one reality to another but a beautiful opportunity for growth and spiritual awakening.
Fr Tom
