This week, we are not doing our normal “kickstart blog,” we’re doing something a bit different. Instead of using the blog as a recap of Sunday, we’ll use it an extension of the message from Sunday. So grab some coffee let’s start a great week together.

We continued our series”Catching Foxes” with our Kfirst community. Our focus has been on what the Word of God says about our emotions. This past Sunday, we looked at the seasons that our emotions can go through.  And we’re taking days this week to specifically focus on each one of the seasons.

(Click here for yesterday’s notes.)

Fall: The Season of Transition

This is my personal favorite; I love September-November. From the blazing colors of the trees, football, ciders mills, and football. But as we start to rake leaves and put on our hoodies and jackets, we realize that change is coming.

It seems these moments of change/transition happen when, it seems, everything in our lives is going kind of smooth and stable. When the “norm” is altered, we find ourselves feeling shaken up. I mean, if we’ll all admit it, we are creatures of habit. We like a flow that we are used to; a pattern of life we can control and/or predict. Yet transition is something we all face.

Generally, there are two types of occasions that can trigger a “Season of Transition”:

1. Developmental Transitions – These natural changes we ALL go through (adolescence , early adulthood, midlife, empty nest, etc)
2. Life Events (Moving, job change, health challenge, adopting a child, etc)

Change happens, but “transition” is the deeper work. William Bridges says,

“Transition is the natural process to which someone dies to a new life.”

You and I cannot do well in a transition unless we recognize that something is ENDING and we are willing to LET IT GO because of the new life/journey ahead. That time of “letting go” can be both stressful and excruciating as we step out of our comfort zones into a new season of life. It’s for this reason that the primary emotions of this season is fear/worry/anxiety.

Bridges goes onto say, “(in transition) we are disoriented because our identity is being challenged.” In the “Fall” season, people might say something like, “I don’t even know who I am right now.” The “Fall” challenges the basic sense of who we are. Why? Because we’re afraid it will be the end of us.

In the season of fall, you need to ask yourself some KEY QUESTIONS:

1. What is it time for me to let go of?
   • Maybe God is wanting to transition you to marital health, but you need to let go of some selfishness in order for your marriage to transition.
   • Perhaps God has been wanted you to get rest, and for that transition, you need to let go of some busyness.
   • Could it be that God wants to close a season at a job or a ministry in order to prepare you for a new season?
2. What is over now?
   • Name it. Write it down. Be specific. We will never be able to embrace new beginnings if we don’t loosen our grip on what is done. I think of Isaiah 43:19 where Israel couldn’t perceive the “new season” because they were so focused upon the situation they had been in.
3. What am I learning?
   • I need to constantly learn and relearn that my identity isn’t about a job, a role, or title. My identity is grounded in THIS: I am a treasured child of the Most High God. Life will shift and change, but that will never change.
4. Who am I trusting?
   • Everyone on the planet goes through change. But the differences with followers of Jesus is that we can choose to trust God while we are IN transition. The very essence of our faith is to trust God, not just when things are stable, but when the winds of change are blowing.

“The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go (transitions), both now and forever.” Psalm 121:5-8

If you are in the season of transition (Fall), be at peace knowing this: God knows you’re in transition and He will “stand beside you” in it and “watch(es) over your life” during it.  If you are in this season, remember our final lessons from Sunday.

1. You were meant to process your season, not be possessed by it. 
2. Don’t get so consumed with the next season you missed the work of your present season.
3. Unnecessary pain results from remaining in a season long after it changed.
4. Your season is not your story; it is a chapter in His beautiful story for your life.

Love you all. Tomorrow we look at “Winter,” the season of loss.