“Pivot. Pivot! PIVOT!!”

It’s an iconic moment for the show FRIENDS as the character Ross shouts these words to Rachel and Chandler that are trying to help him with moving a couch. One of many quotes that live rent free in my head to be honest but lately it’s become more of a thing I tell myself — Pivot!

A shift or change in my perspective or attitude or expectation while still remaining in a fixed position as I endure transition.

“Change is outward, transition is inward…”

These words were a revelation for me when I heard them earlier this month. I’ve always used change and transition interchangeably but here I could tell there was a stark difference.

Transition. It’s such a tricky thing and many of us are probably going through it in some way or another. Transition is the space between; the process of getting from point a to point b and it’s happening within us. It’s when our heart is preparing for seasons or rhythms of life we know are changing or have changed. For me personally it’s going on the mission field, for others it could be having a baby, getting married, graduating, a new career, becoming empty nesters, or even processing the loss of a loved one or a relationship. Outward changes and circumstances that affect our inward life.

”My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.“

Psalms 57:7 NKJV

Psalm fifty-seven seven played over in my mind – a prompting from the Lord to look it up. I had no idea what the scripture actually was and when I read it I certainly didn’t understand because my heart actually felt anything but steadfast. However, I do like to dig into Hebrew meaning, a semblance of verse mapping so hopefully y’all will stick with me on this. 

Steadfast in the Hebrew could mean:

Be enduring

Be securely determined

Be arranged 

To be prepared, be ready

To be established, be fastened

And those are just some. I didn’t stop there though, I also looked into “sing” and “give praise”, including root words and finding things like:

Travel, journey, go

Trim, prune, pluck

Stand, tremble

It was then I felt I could proclaim the same as David in this transition. My heart is steadfast, O God, I will sing and give praise because He’s preparing my heart in the journey. And He’s preparing yours too. In whatever transition you find yourself. He’s our fixed point, our firm foundation! Some things are pruned, some pivoting needed in our inner life at times, but we will find a song along the way and stand and tremble in a deeper awe of God. It’s only when we refuse to make some adjustments that are needed or refuse to continue on the journey that we end up stuck in this transition, never seeming to go further inwardly. And perhaps, like in the show, frustrated. Yet when we fix our eyes on Jesus (again) – pivot our focus – and trust Him in the process we find ourselves smoothly entering into the next phase of life and ourselves fully ready. We’ve been prepared.

This also makes me think of the process of new wine and how we need to be new wine skin that it may be preserved:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.“

Luke 5:37-38 NKJV

Transitions aren’t meant to take us out, they are meant to make room for new, a segue.

May you find your heart steadfast and giving praise to the author and finisher of your faith, Jesus, in this transition and trust the process and purpose of the new.