Navigating life’s transitions
A Christian Science perspective: Transitions don’t need to be scary times.
Each day the sun pursues its stately path across the heavens without a hitch or wobble. That’s the beauty of our endlessly spinning planet. And though we never fear that Earth’s rotation could hit a snag, we might feel as if our own life has.
Maybe we’re going through a period of unemployment or making a major career change. Perhaps we’ve lost a loved one or have just moved to a new city. Whether our path turns abruptly or gradually, such times can be unsettling at best.
Certainly, love from family and friends makes these transitions more bearable. But ultimately, the most healing thing of all is to feel the love of God, our Father-Mother, which is closer than we know. Like the certainty of each glorious dawn, God’s blessing rests upon our lives. His love for His children radiates without interruption. And in the measure that we prayerfully seek to understand this love and trust its presence, it can plant us back on solid ground. The mothering love of God does this, by lifting our thoughts out of our difficulties up to a higher awareness of who we are as God’s children. In addition, this season of transition serves to bring out fresh qualities of character and strength we never knew we had.
At the outset I have found it helpful to put down fear of the unknown. God is caring for us now and at all times. But more than just saying this, there is a need to understand the very nature of God more intimately – as all-good, all-wise, all-knowing, and ever-active in our lives. Since God is Truth, He can never be uncertain or variable in His ways. As I have acknowledged God’s unerring control of His universe, it’s given me a brighter, more spiritual viewpoint. One gains a humble sense of how God governs His creation flawlessly. The Hebrew poet of old, writing in the Bible’s book of Psalms, laments, “My soul melteth for heaviness.” But the psalmist’s awareness of God’s unchanging law of good brings release: “thou shalt enlarge my heart … And I will walk at liberty” (Psalms 119:28, 32, 45).
Another supportive truth I’ve found is that God, the divine Mind, has actually created me. I am Mind’s manifestation or “image and likeness,” as the Bible teaches, so I am at one with Him. My unique purpose then – and the mission of all His children – is to manifest His nature, to reflect intelligence, love, and integrity. No shifting human circumstance can ever change our relation to God. No sense of fear, grief, or uncertainty has any right or ability in God’s eyes to unseat His own spiritual idea and beloved child. Worry gives way to peace as I have prayed to see these truths more clearly.
Particularly helpful is this Bible passage: “Thou [meaning God] has beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me” (Psalms 139:5).
The key is to hold one’s thought firmly to these divine facts. Christ Jesus held his thought constantly to the truth of God, and in doing so showed us the way to freedom. As Messiah to the whole world, he manifested God’s nature more fully than all others. He intimately knew his unity with his Father and served Him with all his heart. This enabled him to heal multitudes.
In following his precious example, we, too, can know that God made us, and that no suggestion of fear or any unsettling event can reverse God’s power and all-good authority in our lives. We can strive with all boldness to be more Christlike. We are not meant simply to cope or limp along. Dominion and courage are our heritage as God’s reflection.
The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, once wrote: “When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, – but more grace, obedience, and love” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 127). These Christly qualities sustain us and carry us through life’s transitions.
Divine Love’s holy purpose is to care for us – never to leave us alone or leave us feeling unsettled. This is a divine fact. After all, we know the sun is going to rise tomorrow and start its majestic path across the sky. There’s no question about it. And just as certainly, we can know that God is guiding our every step, holding our hand as we cross the waters into a new day.