Bon Cherry

It’s awkward. It’s the place of limbo, a period of awaiting a resolution. The labor of uncertainty, whilst holding onto hope. Hope for a bright future that comes when your mind is focussed on a life lived with purpose.

Like a caterpillar going through metamorphosis, transition is the beautiful season when God strips off the old to welcome the new. New places. New people. New courage. New life.

Transition is as inevitable as it is important and we should not be afraid of it. It is the opportunity for growth, a pressing in for flight as the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.

As I sit a little frustrated in my current season of transition, I felt to write down what I feel God is wanting to strip off in preparation.

Strip off doubt

Doubt is a killer. It’s the tidal wave that blows and tosses you in a sea of uncertainty, leaving you exhausted. When you feel God has spoken, the signs are clear and peace ushers in a sense of excitement for the change that is to come, then move forward and do not doubt. Scripture is so clear on this. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5).

If your motives are sincere and your heart is pure before the Lord, do not doubt your decision for transition.

Practical ways to stop doubting:

• Write your prayers and thoughts in a journal. Express how you feel and read with assurance.
• Spend time with people who motivate and inspire you.
• Do not compare yourself to others.
• Remember your gifts, your calling, and what you bring to the table.
• Take each thought captive and hold it up in alignment with the truth.

Strip off impatience

This is a hard one for me. I am the kind of person that says yes to a challenge even before I’ve heard the end of the sentence. I am a “quick starter” who embraces the unknown. This is a blessing in business and life, but can also be a weakness.

God is teaching me to be patient. For the sake of others. For the sake of honour.

Do not rush transition. Wait for the signals and trust the process. Transition is painful but necessary and much beauty can emerge from it if you choose to be intentional with people in this season.

Engage with others, press in with love, hold fast to the end.

I have been a business owner for thirteen years and often when staff have decided to leave to go elsewhere they disengage, loose interest, they drop balls and become self-absorbed. They look only to their own benefit as they see no future in their current place.

Finish strong. Finish how you aim to start. Leave out the front door of one season into the next, not the back door.

Be whole and undivided, respect and communicate clearly in kindness. Do not be impatient. Use this as an opportunity to shine a light of love on others.

People are most important and relationships, no matter what, always count in the Kingdom of God.

Strip off the need to look back

Do not look back, you are not going that way. Walk forward into the destiny you see before you. It won’t help you to look back at the issues you see all around you.

There are so many scriptures in the bible that warn us to never look back. Here are some of them.

1. Philippians 3:13 ESV / 20 – Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
2. Luke 9:62 ESV / 18 – Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
3. Luke 17:32 ESV – Remember Lot’s wife.
4. Ecclesiastes 7:10 ESV / 15 – Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

Looking back is an act of fear and fear is the opposite of faith. When we look back in longing for “yesteryears” we yearn for something that “was” in order to appease a narrative of doubt.

Look ahead. Write down the vision. Make it plain to see. And then walk forward. Run if you need to, but don’t trip on yourself in the process.

Sidenote: This message was for me.