transition...

One of the pictures that comes to mind when we talk about transition is waiting at the bus stop. Imagine yourself sitting there waiting and everyone else is on the go...walking past you, busy with life, zooming around in their cars. At times like these you wish you could just hop into the next bus. Any bus will do ‘cause the waiting is a torture.

(Just to side track a little - I was with my girl friend in Singapore years ago and we quarreled over the pace we were walking in busy Orchard Road. She having worked there for sometime was used to the brisk walking and rushing here and there and that evening our conversation went something like this:

"Hey man! I’m here for a holiday...what are you rushing about for??!
She replied: "We don’t walk so slow here..you may block the traffic flow"..
and I said, "Yah, the road is wide enough for them to bypass us if they want"...
and she said, "Singaporeans don’t walk as slow as Malaysians"
and I said, "yeah..since when have you become a Singaporean...and bla bla..."

...we went on and on..and finally went our separate ways that evening. We met up the next day and laughed about the whole issue. Tsk! Anyway, when I attended conferences there occasionally, I realized I was walking just as fast as them if not faster! My!).

Just to share that everyone is busy with life and the day seems to be shorter nowadays. To wait and be quiet would be deemed as time wastage. We are caught up with the pace of life, being in the rat race... we find that life really has no real meaning until we know what our purpose in life is. We all long to know where we are heading, what is the next step and what God is doing in our lives.

In God’s master plan, there will be seasons of waiting, where we must slow down for a period of time, so we can listen. I like what Ruth Graham says about cultivating stillness in times of transition.

"How do we cultivate stillness? We cut back our schedules where possible, eliminating activities that either are unnecessary or unduly drain our energy. We schedule downtime for ourselves. We maintain our devotional time with God. We prioritize relaxing. So often we get locked into a frenzied pace, believing there is no way out - and at times in life our schedules do fill up for good reason. But we can always find some pocket of time for ourselves. Stillness, rest, quiet - these are important to God. Even if we can only take small steps toward cutting back on busyness, we will do a great service to ourselves."

I know some of you are in these times of transition, and in your busyness of work sometimes you feel you have lost focus and wonder how long you have to wait for "that" to come about.
("That" - the vision, the desire, that place..only you know lah...that which God has placed in you).

Just be faithful and continue to wait for that alignment to take place. Spiritual alignment is costly. He challenges us to let go of our insecurities, our hang-ups, our weaknesses and when the time He feels we are ready, He aligns us for "that" purpose.

That is why this waiting is so important. Maybe we need to remind each other - Hey! Stop and reflect...slow down a little! He is at work in us! The potter must have time to mold the clay...I should say it will not be easy but it will determine our destiny!

-jo-