Can you picture it? You’re driving on a slippery road. Your car suddently careens out of control. Things happen in the blink of an eye—most of them bad. Your brain switches automatically into survival mode. You panic and react instinctively. Like that Carrie Underwood song, you pray for Jesus to take the wheel. Sound familiar?
Here’s the more important question. Do you also remember the three pieces of advice you’re given in case your rear-wheel drive vehicle begins to skid? (1) Don’t hit the brakes. (2) Take your foot off the accelerator. (3) Turn into the skid. All three counter-intuitive rules keep us safe but are tough to apply in emergencies. With planning and practice, however, you and I can learn to turn into the slide.
In the South, we rarely get enough experience driving on icy roads to do it well. In a call to a former church, I moved from Dallas, Texas to Lawrence, Kan. It was a different climate in all kinds of ways. For example, Lawrence was the first place I saw tennis courts with curbs around them—to be flooded and converted into ice skating rinks in winter. During Kansas’s snowy months, we replaced regular tires with studded tires—like permanent tire chains. I soon learned a lesson about winter driving. Practice makes almost perfect, especially when we’re steering into skids—on roads and in life.
Navigating transitions
Transitions pave some of life’s slickest roads. Transition’s twists and turns leave us out of control. If we simply react to transitions and slam on the brakes, we crash. On the other hand, if we steer into the skids, we maintain some control. Obviously, these are big “ifs.” Success for us hinges on practicing how to navigate future transitions now.
Let’s start with basics. Transitions begin with endings, meander through turnings, and end with beginnings. It’s a three-part process that’s thoroughly documented in the Bible.
Practicing how to turn into life’s skids
Here are three biblical guidelines for life’s tougher trips through endings, turnings, and beginnings:
• Abraham’s Journey Principle: You can’t go someplace new without leaving where you are.
Abraham’s call (Genesis 12:1) marks an ending: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” God’s instruction is forceful. Leave. Risk the new. The way forward will be revealed when you’re underway.
The endings of transitions remind us that some roads are deadends. What do you do when you come to an ending? Turn around, and look for new paths forward. End old routines and close finished chapters.
Face it. Life is full of necessary endings. Life stages, jobs and relationships run their natural courses. When a chapter ends, turn into the skid and move in a different direction.
• Wilderness Wanderings’ Principle: It’s a messy process to get from “here” to “there.”
The book of Exodus tells a cautionary tale. The Exodus should have been a simple trip. The children of Israel left Egypt’s hardships for a land flowing with milk and honey, a Promised Land. But they took a 40-year detour into faithlessness and disobedience. God gave leaders, manna and quail, commandments and assurances. Still, they found “creative” ways to make a mess of their transition. Like NASCAR drivers, they drove around and around the same closed track. They grumbled and fussed and milled around. That entire generation died in the wilderness because of their waffling and wobbling.
Humanly speaking, we want our transitions short and neat. Unfortunately, transitions usually muddle and meander. We go off the road and spin our wheels. Although transition’s false starts and stumbles are frustrating, they’re par for the course. You can’t go from “here” to “there” without change and mistakes. Turn into the skid.
• Pentecost’s Pilgrimage Principle: It’s empowering to know you’re finally on the road to the right place.
Pentecost (Acts 2) triggered powerful new beginnings for the fledgling Christian community. They found new ways to live together, to worship and to exercise faith. They moved aggressively into new territories with the story of God’s kingdom. In a mere 30 years, those first Christians evangelized the known world. They were in “The Way” (Acts 9:2, 19:9) and on their way. God’s Spirit led their pilgrimage at every turn.
With new traction, new journeys are begun. There’s energy and momentum in knowing you’re headed in the right direction. New beginnings make it much easier to turn into the skid.
Coaching questions for your transitions
Prepare for transitions’ skids by asking yourself:
• What’s ending in me now?
• Where am I struggling with the messy middles of transitions now?
• What new beginnings are germinating in me now?
• How much faith do I have to turn into the skids of life now?
Bob Dale ([email protected])is a leader coach and retired denominational worker and seminary professor living in Richmond, Va.is a leader coach and retired denominational worker and seminary professor living in Richmond, Va.