Guest Column / Richard Etienne

How well do you deal with transition in life? Allow God to reveal the next step

As is sometimes quoted, “The only thing in life that is constant is change.” And if you are blessed with a long life, you will see great changes in your lifetime.

I am 64. I was born in 1960. (Stay with me here: there is a reason for talking about myself briefly.)

Sixty years before I was born, it was 1900. The average life expectancy of a man was approximately 45! The car was a relatively new invention and there were very few good roads to drive on. The telephone was just gaining popularity. There was no idea of a computer, atomic bomb or the Internet. The Civil War had taken place only 35 years earlier, and no one could have imagined the horrors of World War I and World War II. (My cousin, Joe, remembers my great-grandmother telling stories about her father, who served in the Civil War.)

My point is that life is full of transition: a new apparatus, new phone apps, a new job or adapting to life after marriage, the arrival of that first child or the life after the sudden death of someone close. Change will come. The question is always how a person will deal with transition to a new situation?

I hear people say that they can’t wait until things return to “normal” from the pandemic. Spoiler alert—there is no normal. Our task as humans seems to be to adjust or adapt to the constantly changing situation called life.

There are multiple examples of people in transition in Scripture. One can remember the nation of Israel as it transitioned from Egyptian slaves to a society of nomads wandering in the desert. (You may remember that it was not an easy transition. It was reported that there was much “grumbling.”)

Another example was the transition from Apostles following Jesus in Galilee to fledgling evangelists with a mission to move out among the Gentiles. So, where can we turn for a sense of peace and calm as we continually try to adjust to the many curve balls that life will inevitably throw our way?

Could prayer be the answer?

Maybe it is prayer that constantly changes our hearts as we adapt to change in life. We can’t rush God’s actions. We have to be patient with our prayer as we continue to live in the present—waiting. Prayer is my gift to God—to just be together—to sit quietly.

I have been dealing with a transition in my own life. Exactly what my transition was or how I have adjusted is not as important as the reality that this process will take much reflection and patience to wait for God—in his time—to reveal the “next chapter” to me in this period of transition.

Annually, Catholics move through a liturgical season of the year that is based on waiting—Advent. Most of us are not very adept at the skill of patiently waiting. And this is not just a passive waiting: it requires a readiness for action when God reveals the next step. “Practicing” is good for us.

Do you have a process to allow for periods of quiet time to rest in the Lord as you wait for his plans to be revealed to you in this world that is often filled with much uncertainty? Where is he trying to send you? To quote Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the places you’ll go!”
 

(Richard Etienne has a degree in theology from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad and resides in Newburgh, Ind.) †