An Insight Into Transitions

An Insight Into Transitions

I’ve recently lamented about my transitions and, in another blog you will again.  But I share this with you. 

We all have transitions in our lives.   Some, more than others.  How we take them depends on the individual.  Becky and I have had many and generally we have walked through them well.  But for me, in recent years, especially since retirement, my walk through transitions has been a struggle.  I retired and for the first time in almost 50 years I did not have a full time pastoral appointment. Eventually we moved from our farm to an urban, townhouse neighborhood. During this time, my denomination split right down the middle. I began using my GPS which gave me more than 3 ways to get to a destination and never learning one.  A heart attack and emergency by-pass surgery interrupted what few plans we had, and then my family back in Kentucky began facing challenges, just to mention a very few.  Now we, in a few days, are moving again and now into a retirement community.  I have not handled it as well as I have handled transitions previously. 

Well, God is making it clear to me to “get over myself” and focus on Him.  And now, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I am working, struggling at times, to see what God has in store for me through these transitions. All of my life has been filled with transitions.  From polio when I was 3, the divorce of my parents, living on little and in a borrowed house. But God has brought those transitions back to show me, in the midst of the struggle then, how those transitions helped me to fulfill His calling upon my life.  I could not preach the Gospel if I had not experienced salvation.  I could not care for or empathize with those who struggle with family issues if I had not gone through them myself.  My sense of compassion for persons with handicapping conditions, is born out of the compassion that many gave me in the midst of my challenging physical transitions.  

So, in short, the value of my transitions, whether I like them are not, are precursors to what He wants me to do next, and that excites me. The transitions are becoming training/learning centers. So, I’m trying to get over myself and more into the love of God that He has for me, in the midst of the challenges that I face. 

Grace and Peace,

Quentin

Sharecropper’s Inheritance

Lent, 2025