The Transition

There is a process for transition in life and in Anthropology we call "right of passage." While this phrase is usually reserved for such things as young boys going through a process - a hazing if you will - at the end of which they move from the Mother's residence to the Father's - I have found it applies to almost every transition. Even one so short as traveling from one contry to another.

In this process you start as a person from the States, for instance, with all that you are as a person there, to an in-between that is sort of a 'nothing.' You are one of many 'travelers' who are not permanent to life but an in-between. During that brief time, if you allow it to form in your mind, you have the chance to transition to who you will become when you land. I find this process useful.

I have time to consider what I have left behind and why I am making this trip. I am free from the responsibilities behind and am called to focus on the responsibilities to come.

Soon I will be an 'expert' in culture and leadership - even though in my past life neither are as important as my responsibilities as husband and father - Pastor and mentor. Leaving those last behind will help me best direct those I will be asked to assist at the Global Gathering. 

That we - as humans created by God - can be so flexible is a mystery to me. I tend to be rather intense in my roles and the creativity God provides all of us is focused on the time and place in which I am. So for now that intensity will find a new focus - though for a short time - and may God continue to grant clarity in this alternate life as I become Sherman instead of Pastor Sherman.