“To Live Is to Change” – Transition and Transformation

Last updated on: December 2, 2024 at 2:58 pm by Rick Rice

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“To Live Is to Change” – Transition and Transformation 2024-12-02T14:58:35-05:00 Rick Rice

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To live is to change. But how do we handle those changes? Are we in transition, or undergoing transformation?

Transitions

All of us experience transitions in life. As John Henry Newman said, to live is to change. We grow through childhood and adolescence. We change grades, and then schools. As we grow, we learn; as we learn, we change. Jobs become careers; interests and opportunities bring new careers. Relationships come and go, but the strongest ones last despite the changes we experience. To live is to change.

Twenty-five years ago, we entered our first Christmas season as a pastoral family in Traverse City, Michigan. I had been a lawyer for about ten years when I sensed God’s calling into ministry; about five years later we accepted the call to move to Traverse City to serve a church there. That season of life brought a lot of changes! Our children were 9, 7, and 4. Although we had been part of a church in Indiana, being the pastoral family was different – a change. Now, twenty-five years later, we’re preparing to celebrate our last Christmas as the pastoral family; I will be retiring at the end of December. And that will bring more changes!

One of my favorite passages that deal with transitions is Philippians 3:13-14: “Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus.” To live is to change, but how do we face that change? Do we embrace it, or do we drag our heels, kicking and screaming, trying to avoid it? How do we turn transition into transformation?

Transition and Transformation

I think the Apostle Paul would tell us to embrace change. What else could he mean by “pressing on toward the goal”? His life was marked by change. He moved from a position of human authority as a Pharisee to a servant of Christ. Where he previously thought he had all the answers, he determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Instead of insisting on his own way, he became “all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). Why? “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11, NIV).

So now another transition, another change, is ahead of us. Our children are now 35, 32, and 29. Two of them live in other states. We will become snowbirds – summers in Michigan and the rest of the year in Florida. I won’t be preaching every Sunday (although I’ll accept any request I get!). We will be deciding where we will worship – a process that I’ve experienced on the pastoral side untold times in the last twenty-five years. We started our married life over 40 years ago by getting involved in a church family as laypersons; now, we’ll do it again. To live is to change, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Embracing Transition

I’ve had a lot of people “warn” me that I may get bored. I appreciate their concern, but I’m not worried about being bored in retirement. What will I do?

Continue to write my blog – probably more often that I’ve been able to up to now.
I also write for Beliefnet.com, a sister website to Patheos.
Ride my bike.
Play my guitar.
Continue learning Spanish.
Play golf.
Travel without having to be home on Saturday night.

None of that means that I haven’t enjoyed these last twenty-five years. God blessed our family when He called us to Traverse City. It has been a great place to raise our kids, and to serve our church. But it’s time for a transition – as much for the church as for us. When I told our congregation that I was retiring, I said that I am confident that their best days are yet to come – and I believe that. Our church – every church – is His church! And that’s why we can embrace transition – because we believe that the best is yet to come. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, we press on toward the goal.

To live is to change – and we’re not dead! Transition can bring transformation, because God is continuing His work in us!

Evangelical

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