Life is a series of transitions and change. New relationships, a new baby, a new neighborhood, a new school, or a new job. For the past six months we’ve been a church in transition. 

Every transition has three stages. If you want to see a successful transition in your life you can’t skip or go around any of these stages. We’ve been looking at these three stages during our message series “Transitions: Are We There Yet?” You can listen to the entire series on our podcast by clicking here.

Stage 1: Endings
Every new beginning begins with an ending. This is the most difficult stage. It’s a time of letting go of the past. The Israelites struggled with letting go of the past. Even though God had promised them a “land flowing with milk and honey” they wanted to go back to a life of slavery in Egypt.

Stage 2: The Neutral Zone
The Neutral Zone is the place where it’s too far to go back, but you still have a long way to go. The journey is often long and difficult. Many times you have to go backwards before you can go forward. Fear begins to creep in. The Israelites got stuck in the wilderness and it cost many of them the Promised Land.

Stage 3: New Beginnings
New Beginnings are the fulfillment of the promise of God. But, you can’t take new territory without a challenge or a fight. It takes great courage to see the promise of God fulfilled in your life. Joshua was a man of courage and he led the children of Israel into the Promised Land after many years of wandering.

During the series I have used a whiteboard to illustrate what transitions look like in our lives. If you’ve been there, you know that art is clearly not my gift. So, last week I challenged everyone to submit their own Transition drawing. I promised a Starbucks card to the best drawing. Here are the finalists.