I once received a letter from one of my former freshmen as she started a part time job at an international tutoring program. She had just come across a journal she had kept for my class years before.  

“I was sort of embarrassed to see what I written. My English certainly wasn’t clear. I’ve gone through so many transitions since then. I am learning to speak appropriately in a work setting. Sometimes I have misunderstandings with my British colleagues. But it’s getting better.” 

Oxford Languages defines transition as “the process or a period of changing for one state or condition another.”

My student’s letter could be used in a dictionary for the example. Her vocabulary choices reveal this. “Have gone through”, “am learning”, “sometimes have misunderstandings”, “getting better” all describe a process of change. Not something finished.  

A teammate once sat in my living room and marveled that her family had lived in their present home for two years straight. No moving. “It’s taken the kids the whole time to make some good friends. We now have some family favorites; hiking trails, bus routes, and a fruit vender who calls us to his stall.” 

She, like my student, is describing transition. Not just the physical move to the new place but the process of making it home. From the trial and error of finding the best bus to the repeated support of a vendor to children’s exchange of names and gradual discovery of common interests.   

Derek Thomas writes of the Christian life as a pilgrimage. He gives credit to John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress. This struck me as a more fitting (and Biblical) portrayal of our life of transition than process. As he points out, the idea of pilgrimage has an aspect of adventure, reflects an ever-changing path, and includes a goal or end point. 

“Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 

Few of us are blind to the adventure and constant change of our lives. But maybe today we need Paul’s reminder of our present and future goal; renewal and transformation promised by the One who without fail goes ahead of us.  

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18