I just finished reading the book “MANAGING TRANSITIONS: Making the Most of Change” by William Bridges and would like to share some thoughts with you. It is true that a constant of life is change. If life doesn’t have change, there is death. But “change is situational.” Situations inevitably change. It’s how we handle the transitions into change that is psychological and most important.

  Transition is a three-phase process.

        1. Letting go of the old ways and the old identity people had.

   2. Going through an in-between time when the old is gone but the new isn’t fully operational.

        3. Coming out of the transition and making a new beginning.” (p. 4-5)

   So, “the starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome, but the ending that you’ll have to make to leave the old situation behind.” It involves “letting go of the old reality you had before the change took place.” (p. 7). Bridges writes: “The failure to identify and get ready for endings and losses is the largest difficulty for people in transition.” (p. 8)

  The biggest problem for the Hebrews coming out of Egypt as slaves to the Promised Land as a free nation was leaving the slave mindset. They were glad for the change to be free, but didn’t know how to behave as free people under law and grace and not under a slave master. I can also appreciate more what the disciples of Jesus went through when he was crucified. They had to let go of the old ways of being with Jesus physically. All their hopes of the coming of the Kingdom of God while Jesus was with them had to be let go. And now it was even dangerous to be identified with Jesus. These transitions into something else were not easy, but necessary. And they all started with “letting go of the old ways and the old identity people had.

  How is God working through change in your life? Are you handling the transition by first letting go of the old ways and the old identity? Jesus calls us into new life exactly this way when we let go of the old way of life with sin and receive a new identity in Him. When we do, we know abundant and eternal life worth living. May God’s grace help all of us to let go of the old as we await the new that He has prepared for us.

   In His Love, Pastor Jim