Monday, August 03, 2009

Point A to Point B People

Not in his goals, but in his transitions man is great. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever driven on a highway where road construction has funneled progress down to one lane? And as you are slowly making your way past the construction site, have you ever noticed how many construction guys are working and how many appear to be watching? It seems the ratio of guys watching to actually working is about 2 to 1. When road construction guys are in the picture, there’s a lot of unnecessary waiting. In fact, just this morning I was leaving a parking lot, trying to enter a busy street. From the left side of my vision, one lone construction guy began to cross my path. One guy. He had the orange vest and hat on. The boots, long sleeves and tool belt. He was one road construction guy. I looked all around and couldn’t find anyone else dressed like him. And he just slowly strolled… all the way across my only point of outlet. I waited and thought something spiritual like, “Good grief, it doesn’t matter where these guys are, whether it’s one or many, they make you wait.”

When you see certain people in life you just know you will be waiting. Waiting is difficult because we are “point A to point B people”. We have a linear perspective. We assume point B is the goal and when we're forced to wait, we’re in between. We’re not at A or B.

In between A and B is where life happens.

In his book, Transitions, William Bridges cites three major transitional stages, which I’ll adapt here…

1. Leaving
2. Waiting
3. New beginning

All three stages are interconnected. Yes, you want the new beginning stage. That's point B. (Or at least we’ll assume its point B. In reality it might be point J but who really knows until we get there?) But to get to B you must first be willing to leave point A. (Or “end”, or “let go”. Only you know your situation well enough to know what word to use.) I firmly believe that many of us are simply not good at leaving. Can you imagine trying to drive always looking in the rear view mirror? Put another way, what do you have to do in order to grab hold of something? You have to let go of whatever is in your hand. To hint at more of a spiritual element here, you have to be willing to experience death before you can get to life. Now, here’s a crucial point…

Leaving/ending or letting go must always be processed inside out. It starts on the inside with some form of letting go of a long held belief, idea or perspective of something or someone or yourself, which in turn, triggers an external response. But it has to start on the inside. If you get that mixed up you're in for pain. You see, everyone wants to find a shortcut around the bump in the road. But, life isn’t a journey around… It’s a journey through... Your society, your place of work, your church and your family is filled with people who want to circumvent the pain of going through.

But you can’t run away from yourself.

In between A and B is where you deal with yourself. Some people never make it. What about you?

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6 comments:

Ardy said...

Amen! I admit I am sometimes a very impatient person, I really don't want to wait for I valued my time. However if I am aiming for something to happen with my life, then definitely I should not just sit around. I make it to a point where I give all the possible shots in order for me to get what I coveted for. That is way back before as my worldly approach. But applying the Bible, it's really an opposite way. I just need to let God do the provision and let Him work with my life. If I feel I'm getting bored of waiting that is the time that I spend my time in prayer. But good point though with your post...when God gives us something we need to response for that blessing. I remember the story that one of our preachers told, it's about building commercial structures.In order for that project to be manifested, engineers need to destroy the small buildings that may interfere with the site plan. They even need to destroy some parts of a forest or a farm just for them to provide the needed space for the site project. Analogy is that if you want to build something you have to destroy or let go of something. If you long to have an intimate relationship with God you need to get hold of what hinders you from walking in the spirit. We cant have both the carnal desire and spiritual desire. We can't say that I am a servant of God if we are holding a bottle of liquor. I just thank my God that He continues to correct me through His words preserved in the bible. Keep posting inspiring article. God bless you!

Jonathan Foster said...

reminds me of Kierkegaard... "God creates everything out of nothing."

thanks

Ardy said...

AMEN!

Anonymous said...

JF

Love your stuff, man. Wish I could be more eloquent, but it's true. You have a great gift. Thank you for helping others.

RTK

Jonathan Foster said...

thank you

Anonymous said...

Yes, and getting from point A to point B maybe YOUR Plan, but not GOD'S PLAN, which we keep seeing through our lives. My cars water pump blew last week, in route from A to B and my daughter was extremely frustrated. I called triple A to tow us and as we waited explained to her about the in between time and how this was really not a huge inconvenience. It was just a reminder to slow down and except life as it comes.

Steph