Worship in the Transition

The third week of my internship here at North Woodbury is drawing to a close. Already, I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by! After meeting many of you in the office and on Sunday mornings, I am struck with how short this summer will seem. It is already such a joy and a blessing for me to be able to serve this church body. I am not even trying to be flattering! I just want to be as honest and as genuine as I can, and I can honestly say the Lord has blessed me through you at North Woodbury in this short time I have been interning.

As I reflect over these last few weeks, I find myself reliving many of the emotions I felt on my very first day. Everything was so new, exciting, and scary! I hardly knew anybody, and I had been anticipating this first day for quite some time. Transitioning into something I have never done before is always a big deal for me. I just finished my first year of college, and it was a huge transition and change for me to move from my tiny little rural hometown in Ohio to a huge suburb of Chicago, IL! It was also a transition for me when I moved back home in May for the summer. Then I began taking my first ever online class, which was another transition, on top of transitioning into my internship here at NW. There have been a lot of transitions lately, and in the middle of it, it can feel a lot like chaos. It feels like the stress can be overwhelming at times, and my thoughts are being pulled in a thousand different directions all at once.

We go through many different seasons throughout our lives. The Lord uses these seasons to bring change to our landscape, to breathe new life into our bones, to teach us new things, and to grow us more into His image. But in order for Him to do so, we must submit to His sovereignty and let Him take control in these scary times of transition. We must surrender our tendency to take control of our lives out of distrust, fear, doubt, and confusion. This morning, Pastor Cory mentioned to me there was a lot of transitioning happening here at NW. “This is good,” he said, “Because it means that the Lord is moving, and we are hearing His voice and obeying Him. It’s exciting and terrifying.” Maybe you find yourself going through some rocky changes and transitions in your own life. And even if not, one is on the horizon. Maybe the reason why God brought me to NW this summer was so that we could be unified as a body of believers to go through all these transitions together, with God as our Leader and Protector.

Let us see the ultimate picture of God’s plan in light of transitioning times. May we keep our minds on things above, and not get so caught up in earthly thoughts that threaten to overwhelm us in the midst of heavy change. Jesus is our Life Giver; let us CLING to Him in personal intimacy. He will carry us through. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the ways of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” – Isaiah 43:18-19

Worship Him in the transition, my friends!