As one starts out in life, in the real world of adulthood post-college, life could be described simply as transitional. It’s the transition from studying to working, from borrowing to paying, from renting to owning, and from flakiness to commitment. It’s a time where one is already an adult, but not yet living out the extent of what that entails – slowly and by the grace of God eventually being conformed to fully living out all of which their new social identity includes. It’s living in a state of transition.
The transition mindset is one that is either looking ahead and anticipating what is to come, or dwelling behind on what has been. It is not wholly focused on the present, but in a constant state of transition. Our culture today has labeled this mentality as not being present, a negative connotation, but is it actually negative? Apart from Jesus, yes, but in Christ, this is not negative at all; I would actually regard it as commanded.
As a follower of Jesus, our lives are also lived in transition. We are living presently in a fallen world, being conformed daily more and more into the image of Christ, and anticipating the glory to come of eternity in the presence of God, worshiping Him.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
There is never a settling of permanence, because we are merely sojourners in a land not our Home awaiting our Savior to usher us into the eternal Kingdom.
In this life when we go through change it often results in a lot of stress, confusion, and shakiness; that’s expected, because Christians are made for the permanence that is glorifying God – who is unchanging, unshakable, and eternal. When transition hits, there may be temptation to give heart to the anxieties of change, but for the Christian – there is permanence in the Unchanging. When this life brings occasions of transition, one can fix their eyes behind to the finished work of Calvary and ahead the promise of redemption, focused on eternity, and the one permanence that we can stand on: Christ the Solid Rock.
Living in transition is a great reminder for the saint that our physical state is indeed temporal (2 Corinthians 5:1-5), and the only thing permanent and unchanging is God himself. It is a time to offer praises to God as the Solid Rock, who is working through us the transition of being conformed into his image of perfection and wholeness (Romans 8:29) – which one day will be completed to the glory of God (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
