We tell a common non-joke around here, the gist of which is that Transition is a bad word, only to be whispered in hushed hues. Once a year, however, at least in the Middle School, we pull it out and put it on the table in the middle of the room for all students to poke and play with. Our annual Transition Workshop has become one of my favorite evenings; it never goes the same way twice. Even though we talk about the transition to high school coming up and the international moves they have all experienced, different students will bring different experiences and emotions to the workshop.
And we focus a lot on emotions by assigning names to those vague thoughts on the edge of our brains (“I don’t know what to expect in America next year” = fear; “Everyone else is ready for high school but me” = jealousy; “I can’t wait to try out for volleyball” = hope). One of the best gifts we feel we can give our students is the recognition that they are not alone in their transition.
To that end, this year, I started out by laying pieces of paper on the ground to symbolize the transition bridge. As I walked from “Involved” → “Leaving” → “Chaos” → “Entering” → “Re-Involved,” I asked some brave people to share times they had walked this bridge. One left Jordan to move to Germany, one gained a new baby sister, one switched schools in the middle of the year, one lost a beloved pet. I was so proud of them for sharing.
Next, I asked them to share any Bible characters who they knew had walked some kind of transition. They blew me away with their knowledge of many stories. Joseph was sold by his brothers into the chaos of slavery but then became “re-involved” when he was promoted to Pharaoh's right-hand man and was reunited with his family. Daniel’s journey was similar in his own exile. Gideon moved from coward to warrior, from fully reliant on God to mostly reliant on himself. Paul, David, Ruth, Abraham, Adam & Eve, both Marys, the list was long. Then one girl nearly popped up out of her chair and shouted “Jesus!” It was the typical Sunday school answer, but her classmates’ eyes got wide as they put the pieces together that Jesus was fully involved in heaven, then left for the chaos of our world, so that we could all now enter into the re-involvement phase.
The depth of their understanding in that moment was beautiful. Because the truth of the matter is that the entire gospel story is a story of Transition. In the Garden of Eden, we weren’t just involved, we were in perfect communion with our Creator, fully known and fully belonging. But we left. It was our choice, and the chaos that followed is where we continue to live unless we finish crossing the bridge. Jesus’ death on the cross invites us to re-enter the goodness that was once ours. Only on the other side, our joy is even more complete because to be re-involved (not just involved) carries a richness and an experience that our kids could write stories about. Every time we walk a transition, it’s an opportunity to proclaim the gospel again.
As our workshop continued, the kids tie-dyed T-shirts to remind themselves that out of the emotional turmoil there can be beauty, that God wastes nothing, and that they never walk alone. On Saturday, they’ll walk across the stage and say good-bye to their Middle School Years (often called the “chaos years” of education), and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
