Change.
Sometimes it happens to us. Other times it feels like a door we have been standing outside of, knocking on for a long time, asking for it, praying for it. Whether you welcome it or are surprised by it, I am learning the importance of processing change. We don’t always get to control how it happens or when it happens. But we have choice in how we manage it. Que the concept of a change management in the business world. But I believe it far extends the business world because how we manage change matters.
A page is turning. There is a delicately to how the pages of our stories are turned. It can be like a child at bedtime wanting to turn the page too fast and it rips. Or there can be a slowness to it. Not necessary the slowness in how the timing of everything unfolds – but the slowness can be found it the spaces that we create so we lean in and process. We can reflect. We can remember.
When you read a book and come to a new chapter, the story doesn’t make much sense if you forget all that just happened. The same is for us. There is sometimes such an excitement to what is coming but there is also something magical about that moment when you look back and see all the led to this. It’s often a chance to look back and see the breadcrumbs of how God was leading you. To stand in awe of how all the dots connects and that He knew along where this was going.
Moses does this in Numbers 33. The headline of the chapter reads – Recounting Israel’s Journey.
“Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages…” Numbers 33:1-2
They aren’t even to the Promise Land yet. This is only Moses writing down when and how they left Egypt. He wrote it down. When that moment comes where Joshua leads the Israelities into the Promise Land and then you come all the way back to Numbers 33 to see when they set out – you see just how much ground they covered. We can see it because Moses wrote it down. This is me reading between the lines here but as a writer, writing things down, that requires space to process and reflect.
The Israelites were in the wilderness. We know they complained about being there (Exodus 16) but they were still moving in the wilderness, they were still journeying somewhere. God was leading them. I love this because sometimes we talk about waiting as if it always comes with a desirable setting. I think the Israelites would agree that the wilderness was far from ideal. Yet it wasn’t the setting that mattered, it was a God who showed up in the wilderness and shows up in whatever setting we are in, and if we let Him, shepherds us all the way through.
It’s not fun when we are in those seasons, wanting out of where we are, and feeling like the arrival at somewhere new isn’t coming. However, I have learned in those moments there is an invitation for my prayer to shift. The miracle wasn’t just that God got the Israelites to the Promise Land. There was miracle after miracle of how God showed Himself to them while they were in it. A cloud by day. A fire by night. Manna in the morning. Honey in a rock. A parting of the red sea.
Of course, we can ask God to lead us out/on from whatever it is. However, we cannot miss the fact that we can see Him right where we are. We can pray for our eyes to be open to how He, the God of the Universe, is with us.
The wilderness was not short of moments where God was evident for the people. The same is true for us. Maybe we need to ask God to help us see it more. Our eyes set on Him. Not just our eyes set on where we want to go. I have to ask Him to help me do this often.
I truly believe that when we create that space to reflect and process change, there is often a moment when the fog lifts and what we weren’t capable to see in the moment now is in plain view. That isn’t to say that we don’t want to be people who see it as it is happening. It is to say that in our humanness, we can sometimes miss it. Yet God in His grace, lets us look back. He rolls the tape right in front our very eyes and our faith expands as we see He is always true to His Word – “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:18
And then, we can take a play out of Moses book, and we recount each of our own journeys. I have been doing that this weekend as I process making a career change. No, I am not leaving Chick-fil-A. However, on November 1st, I am going to another side of the business. From the world of Facilities and Equipment to Service and Hospitality. From the same team I have been with for four years, to a team where I don’t know anyone. From knowing exactly what my days look like, to “I don’t fully know what I will be doing.” From the known, to the unknown. Here is the thing – I couldn’t be more excited. Yet I didn’t want the excitement to steal the opportunity to honor all that these years have held. A bittersweetness. Don’t you love that there is space at God’s table for more than one emotion?
It has been the sweetest few days reflecting on the fact that never in a million years would I have guessed I would have spent four years learning about pressure fryers and electrical panels. I would be lying if I didn’t say there were moments when I did feel like, “God this makes no sense.” But as I look back, it leaves me speechless to see how over and over God has showed Himself to me in this season. How me taught me things, often through the people around me, that I never would have learned. How He gave me coworkers who have became friends. How He was preparing me for what was next when I had no clue what that was. I am so grateful.
Change is coming.
A page is turning.
But what joy to look back and recount the journey.
I don’t know what kind of change you might be experiencing. What I do know is that some point change is inevitable for us all. What I do know is that there is a God in heaven who is safe to process it with, good change or hard change.
And what I do know above all is this– God, He never changes. You can trust Him.
“For I the Lord do not change.” Malachi 3:6
