Transitions often bring with them new rhythms. I haven’t always associated transitions with new rhythms in my routine, but as I get older the more I recognize patterns that change with each stage of life.
Our spiritual lives also have a natural ebb and flow to them. We may not understand that its normal to have shifting ideas and feelings regarding our faith. Once we recognize that the questions that we have are part of the process we can welcome the seemingly scary parts of the spiritual journey.
Transitions in faith are discussed in many books, Richard Rohr talks about the different ways we process and develop our faith in the first half of life verses in the second half of life. We’ve heard in the business world “What got you here, won’t sustain you here” both of these are ways of encouraging us to embrace change as we enter into different seasons of faith, business, and life.
This brings to mind a prayer
For A New Beginning by John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart, where your thoughts never think to wander, this beginning has been quietly forming, waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire, feeling the emptiness growing inside you, noticing how you willed yourself on, still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety and the gray promises that sameness whispered, heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled, and out you stepped onto new ground, your eyes young again with energy and dream, a path of plentiude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear, you can trust the promise of this opening; unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning, that is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure; hold nothing back, learn to fine ease in risk; soon you will home in a new rhythm, for your soul senses the world that awaits you.