It wasn’t opportunity knocking, it was a transition rattling and handshaking its way into my life, uninvited. The invasion of that particular transition threatened everything familiar. My scattered memories of better times got left in the wake of it, fighting for legacy. Some transitions in life are like that, but not all. There’s another variety of transitions. They’re the kind that we initiate.
What I’ve learned in both kinds is that all transitions matter. They matter because God works His ultimate purpose in our transitions to transform our character! I must never forget that, but neither should you.
In the book I’m writing, SCATTERED – Leveraging life in trying times, I write about Seven Factors that we can leverage in those times. The first factor is to see the opportunity staring us in the face. Even if those times try us to the max. James’ letter was as much a challenge to the first century church as it is to us today. In this new series of ‘Now Matters’, I will begin to dig into each of the seven factors. I encourage you to give James’ letter a fresh read, especially in the Passion Bible Translation. The purpose of transitions is always transformational. Regardless of what originates transitions,I know this:
God is passionately invested in us becoming someone we could never be without His direction and intervention.
As followers of Jesus we live in a constant flux of spiritual change. As leaders we juggle problem solving each day. As parents we balance the conflicts facing us with what we really treasure as fathers and mothers. In crisis mode, we volley decisions that have life and death consequences. Uprooting and relocating to an unfamiliar geographic location checks all the boxes marked ‘stress’! So do job changes, relationship changes, and the list goes on and on. All of these have a tendency to scatter our thoughts. But in these and others there is always hope because in them there are opportunities of the God-kind.
Jesus saw multiple opportunities everyday. His followers trailed behind Him watching. They, too learned to see, seize and navigate opportunities in the trying times they lived. First, we have to see them. Then we have to leverage those opportunities.
Today’s take away: Allow the Holy Spirit to father you through scattered times. Ask Him to teach you to see, seize and navigate through the opportunities hidden in them. Study how Jesus did it. Learn of Him.
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