Skip to main content

The Messes We Don't Plan For

 


Have you ever traveled and had your toiletries explode or leak in your bag or suitcase? What a mess!

You open your suitcase expecting to quickly settle in, only to discover shampoo coating your clothes, lotion smeared across your shoes, or toothpaste somehow finding its way into everything. Suddenly, what was supposed to be simple becomes frustrating, time-consuming, and inconvenient.

Travel has a way of shaking things up.

Life transitions can feel very similar.

Many of us carefully pack our lives with plans, expectations, routines, and goals. We think we know exactly how the journey will unfold. Then suddenly something shifts — a job change, retirement, grief, burnout, a move, a relationship ending, a health challenge, or even an unexpected opportunity.

And before we know it, the emotional “contents” of our lives feel scattered everywhere.

Transitions often expose things we thought were securely contained:
old fears, unresolved pain, disappointments, exhaustion, uncertainty, or questions about identity and purpose.

At first, we may only see the mess.

But here is something important about messy suitcases: they can be cleaned out. Things can be sorted. Some items can be washed. Others may need to be replaced. And sometimes we realize we packed things we never really needed to carry in the first place.

Life transitions invite us into a similar process.

While uncomfortable, transitions can help us:

  • reevaluate what we are carrying,
  • discover what no longer serves us,
  • strengthen what truly matters,
  • and repack our lives with greater intentionality.

Sometimes the very thing that spills out during a transition is the thing that needed attention all along.

The goal is not to avoid every mess in life. That is impossible. The goal is learning how to respond with patience, compassion, and resilience when life feels disrupted.

So if life feels messy right now, perhaps this season is not simply about cleaning things up as quickly as possible. Perhaps it is also an invitation to pause, sort through what has surfaced, and decide what you want to carry forward into your next chapter.

Even messy transitions can lead us somewhere meaningful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October Newsletter

  SHANNON’S CORNER The Saga Continues… The trip to Malaysia consisted of a two-day spiritual retreat with the theme of ‘Come Away With Me’ and a six-day conference with about 230 missionaries who serve in some aspect of translating the Scriptures. One of the many people who I met was a missionary who served in Cameroon for many years and now is in a new role. As he was sharing, most his words were very negative and depressive. I encouraged him to sign up for a time of prayer and care. At the end of the retreat, this missionary shared with me that he did have a session and I could see that his whole countenance changed, and he was hopeful. His new word he used to describe where he was now is ‘delightful.’ Our time there was creating a safe space for these missionaries to have a place to share what they are struggling with and to connect with Jesus. One missionary is at a crossroads in her life. Another finds himself in the midst of betrayal. A missionary is in a new role as a caregi...
Post a Comment
Read more

September Newsletter

SHANNON’S CORNER Connect. Nurture. Grow. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for this ministry.  Each debrief is a sacred invitation—a chance to step into someone’s story, even if only for a short stretch of the journey.  It feels a bit like being allowed to glimpse a painting still in progress.  We may not yet see the final picture, but we trust the One who promises to complete the good work He has begun until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6). Recently, in an online debrief, the missionary shared: “ I am in a much better place since our initial meeting.  Taking the time to process my lived experience overseas and to grieve the losses, I now feel I have the capacity to move forward here in my new season of life. ” We also had the joy of walking alongside three third culture children. To see their eyes light up as their stories were received with understanding and care was priceless.  These children do not often have many who truly grasp their unique li...
Post a Comment
Read more

You Are Not A Role

  You are not your job title.  You are not your productivity.  You are not only the caretaker, the leader, the helper, the strong one.   Those may be things you  do —beautifully, even sacrificially—but they are not the  whole story  of who you are.   Your worth is not defined by your output.  Your identity is not limited to your roles.   Coaching begins when we ask: What would it look like to live from that truer self, even just a little more today?
Post a Comment
Read more