There are two things you never want to see being made: laws and sausages. I respectfully submit a third item for consideration: conveyancing, which remains as much a mystery now, as a house owner, as it was beforehand!
Major life transitions such as moving house can be a time of growth or a time of decline; very rarely do we stand still in those times. I often think that how we meet the change is as important as the change itself. If we regard significant upheavals throughout Biblical history, the people we hear about are those who accepted what was happening and made a conscious decision to embrace, influence, or change events. So too is this reflected in the rich and diverse heritage of the Methodist Connexion.
Transitions hurt: we’re exchanging an old reality for a new reality. In my career, leading strategic programmes, it can be astonishing how hard people will fight against change because of the fear and pain involved, no matter how much the proposal will improve their day-to-day experience. The same five stages of grief we experience when losing a loved one (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) apply just as equally to transitions. It is human for us to react, I find however, we achieve better outcomes when we respond.
Ruth responded to the death of her husband by finding an alternative source of food to support herself and Naomi. Joseph responded to his captivity by making himself useful, from Potiphar to the Pharoah. Esther responded to Haman’s machinations by using her influence and talents to save the Jewish people. Peter responded to the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and we now have the global church. William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect, not to mention John Wesley, responded to the abject horrors of slavery by ensuring its abolition in the British Empire. Martin Luther King Jr responded to racial injustice by bringing about the most ground-breaking reforms for racial equality in the USA in his time. Would it have been more comfortable for each of these figures to react from fear and stay silent, than to respond? Undoubtedly at first, though I suspect the pain of not responding would have eventually overwhelmed the comfort of standing still.
Some questions to consider this week: What transition(s) are we each facing? How might we each work through these transitions prayerfully? What will be our first step to respond?
Very best wishes,
Tim