I walk into a candle store ready to sniff my way to euphoria, and I’m blasted with “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!!!” blaring through the speakers as an overly kind sales associate asks if I need help finding anything.
I shake my head no, already over stimulated, and head over to the candles only to see they are a whomping $30! Placing the candle back on its highly decorated stand, I high tail it out of there before the sales associate catches me making a run for it.
Ring a bell for anyone?
With the holidays just days away, I find myself anxiously awaiting the unknown. Like many during this time, I tend to reflect over the year and what aspirations I have for the year to come. I reflect over the good, the bad, and the ugly while equally dreaming, planning, and pondering what’s next?
Usually, I reflect over the accomplishments or challenges I’ve overcome, the pain and suffering I’ve endured, or even scroll through several photos to pull together a “highlight reel” for social media. Needless to say, the holidays brings a mixed bag of emotions in my world.
Is it just me? While I hope I’m the only one who anxiously reflects and ponders the unknown, maybe you find yourself in a similar situation.
A month ago, I parted ways with a company God had clearly set in my path. The same position that led my husband and I to move across state lines into Tennessee just 2 years ago. Ouch, right?
Talk about a transition moment and anxiously awaiting the unknown. Why would I feel a pull to turn away from the same company God set in my path only 2 years prior? Why would He willingly shut a door He had just opened back in 2021? Why? Why? Why?…That one word kept popping up in my head.
On the drive home, with my office belongings packed tightly in my little black backpack, I clearly heard God’s voice and some of you may be vaguely familiar with this saying:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
In that moment, I cried and smiled while laughing in early morning traffic. LAUGHING. There was a car in front of me with reindeer antlers on the roof and lights strung at the top…it wasn’t even Thanksgiving yet! I had no job, sitting in front of Rudolph’s car of all things, and I was thanking God for removing from a situation when He did.
At the time, this was just one day before seeing my entire family in Florida for our annual, non-traditional Thanksgiving at the beach trip.
Cue the Grandpa Billy questions of “How’s that job of yours?” or Aunt Jeanette’s doting comments on how it would be wonderful if we were expecting a baby sometime this next year (sorry to the grandpa Billy’s and the Aunt Jeanette’s out there, I’m sure y’all are lovely people!). I know, I can feel some of the eyes rolling from here…because you understand it!
Somehow, I knew I was going to be okay. It didn’t feel like it but I knew He had better plans than the current situation I was in.
My point being, navigating life transitions, especially surrounding the holiday season, seems like an unbearable task. The unknown of what’s next paired with the anxiousness of not having all the answers ready in hand.
Maybe you didn’t lose your job but you are struggling to get pregnant.
Maybe, you’ve been at the entrepreneurship thing for a while and are ready to throw in the towel.
Maybe you’ve experienced the worst year of your life and plastering a “happy face” for the holidays just seems totally and completely impossible for you right now.
Or maybe, you are at your whit’s end with your kids and you just want to scream at the top of your lungs, take a week long trip with just you, a cabin, a book, and a cozy fireplace leaving the kiddos behind with your loving husbands.
Whatever this season of unknowns brings you, I want to leave a little bit of encouragement from Moses.
You see, throughout Moses’ life in the Bible, he very clearly went through his own transitions…in fact, HE talked backed to GOD in Exodus 32-33. “Show me your glory!” Moses yells. Even in the Bible, God’s own disciples found themselves crying out to God to show His glory; His plans; His lessons or His mercy.
Throughout Moses life, he experienced what it felt like to go through the agonizing development transitions, the heart-wrenching separation transitions, the creative cultivation transitions, and even the transition of knowing when something is finished.
The same can be said for you and I, friend. Moses life is just one example of so many who are on the brink of the unknown and are in some kind of transition period that has one ending with another beginning.
So, as you head into your own holiday season, whatever that may look like for you, take heart in knowing that He has plans for you. Plans that will prosper and not harm. Plans that will give you hope and a future.
Take heart in knowing that He has you in the transition you are in on purpose.
“The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still”
Exodus 14:14
Simply Blooming Grace 