4 Keys To Transition

Every time we get promoted, it can feel like we are dying. Sometimes people actually use that phrase for people who have died, ‘they have been promoted’. For us here living life, the promotion actually requires us to set down the old, the familiar, the routine, and pick up the new, terrifying, unknown thing that we feel totally incompetent (or worse, overconfident) in picking up. I read this quote today from a motivational speaker and life coach and thought it was apropos.

“The great thing about trapezes, is that you can’t hold on to two of them at the same time. You have to let go of the old one in order to reach out and grab the new one. In between letting go of the old one and grabbing the new one, you’re not holding on to anything. And that’s where all the possibilities are—in between. That’s where you’re open to new possibilities. That’s when you learn to fly.” Gale Blanke Between Trapezes: Flying into a New Life with the Greatest of Ease (Rodale Books, 2004)

I want to suggest there are 4 keys we need to have when learning to fly.

1.     You have to want to let go.

It may be comfortable, it may be known, it may be just downright easy but if you are going to let go, you have to want to. However, sometimes someone else might just force your hands on this. You might lose that job, lose that relationship, lose that leadership role and I suspect, it might be His hand nudging you to take the leap.

2.     Don’t panic

Panic kills. In times of danger and stress, panic kills. Imagine the scenario, you have decided to let go of the bar and take the leap for the next bar and mid air, you start screaming and flailing you arms and legs around in a panic that for a moment, you are not holding onto a bar. Chances of grabbing the bar = zero. ‘Be still and know that I am God’ is a great skill to learn when you don’t need it, so that when you do need it, you have it.

3.     You have to know what the bar looks like

Lack of vision is killing destinies. I remember when I was 16 I just wanted to be in ministry. I would have done anything just to maybe, one day, get a chance to preach. Nowadays my focus is growing sharper. I am culture shifter called to raise up apostles and apostolic people. I want to see church leaders supported, released and empowered to do all God has placed on their hearts to do. It is time we see God’s men and women set free to be all they are called to be. I know what my next bar looks like. It may be time to put words to what is on your heart and here’s a clue, it has probably been there all along.

4.     The bar will come

It is coming. It may be delayed but it will come at the right time. Though it tarries, it will not tarry.

It might be time to let go and learn to fly. Again.

We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Anon