What transition has taught me

It’s good to read about other people’s transitions because in the midst of a major transition it’s easy to feel quite at sea and isolated. Without any regular contact with other people, with many goodbyes having been said, there are few people around to help give us some ballast.

A friend recently described to me her experience of transition as akin to being in a washing machine. And yes, it does throw you around, at times it’s hard to know which way is up and there’s not much predictable, not much to grasp ahold of in the midst of transition. I have felt more like it’s been a rollercoaster, with emotions and energy riding up and down unpredictably. That hasn’t been helped this time by arriving in the midst of term-time. School is in full tilt, church, and OMF also. It feels like we’ve been dropped into a rollercoaster that’s heading down a slope rather fast.

I saw this blog post several months ago and I’ve used it to springboard into my own post today.

A simple life?

The blog post author had hoped for a simple life, but found that a call to cross-cultural mission work means that life gets complicated. However, in the same breath, transition also strips you down. It helps you to see where you are putting your trust and that truly the only place to put your trust in in your Heavenly Father. Our only true, permanent identity is as a child of God.

I agree. Being regularly stripped of the trappings of life, of status, of a residence, of settled routines, makes you re-examine yourself. Moving often and, in our case, living in a smallish Japanese house, means that you tend to be faster to throw things out than you might have been if you hadn’t lived this life. Our lives are simpler in terms of materialistic goods, simply because multiple transitions helps you to see what’s not so important to hold onto.

Leading to growth

The author goes on to talk about spiritual growth. It really is an extension of what is mentioned above: that transition strips you and leaves you to lean on the only true Rock. The shake-up that happens with every major transition rips away those things that you were relying on and hopefully the result is growth.

Trusting God to provide

Yep, pretty much all missionaries have this challenge, some more than others. But there are points about God’s provision that are beyond monthly support figures. Because we don’t have a large budget we rely on others to help us with practical things like moving, finding accommodation, borrowing cars, finding furniture etc. This post I wrote in the middle of our move earlier this month highlighted the many “helps” we received.

Then there’s other things that you have even less control over, that God often provides, like a friend for your child, a sympathetic teacher who will help your child adjust to their new school, a friend who will stop and listen to you when you’re less than likeable, groceries or a meal provided, or help to complete a bureaucratic errand. God provides people and things like these in the midst of transition, at a time when you’re most in need of help.

Because we’ve seen God provide in these ways in the past it gives us more confidence to face the next transition. For all those people who look at us during transition and sigh, “I couldn’t do what you do,” it’s important to understand the context we’re operating under: we’ve done it before and know God’s great provision. It doesn’t mean that transition is a breeze, it definitely isn’t. But it does mean that we possibly do it a little easier than someone who never has and never could imagine doing it.

Holding onto God

The author mentioned God giving her a “word” to cling to during transition. I haven’t had that exact same experience, but I have known God’s special reassurance when returning to Japan. Except for this last time, every transition back to Japan, within a week or so of returning I’ve felt a deep sense that God has called me to this land and will continue to enable and provide. This last time I think that reassurance came several weeks earlier when we were seeking God’s leading in the midst of the financial questions thrown at us late in November.

Where is home?

Transition between cultures makes you question where home is. Another aspect of the experience of transition that makes you realise that our only true home is with God. That’s both an unsettling thought (I’ll never feel 100% “at home” here on earth), but also reassuring that there will eventually be somewhere I feel at home, even if I have to wait a while for it. And that home will last forever.

There are other things I’ve learned through transition, for example, to be an observer and inquirer about culture and “the air”. The latter is great Japanese euphemism for picking up the atmosphere, being perceptive to what’s going on that’s not necessarily being stated outright. After we returned to Australia I wrote a post about what I perceived as being “in the air” in Australia. Some was obvious as it was in newspaper headlines, but others I only picked up through conversations with various people, articles, and observations in the community.

There are other things I've learned too, but this is enough for today!