One of the things I do to “sharpen the teeth” of my leadership saw, is a monthly coaching session designed to help me talk through issues I am concerned about. In these sessions I do almost all the talking. The coach is my “thinking partner”. He helps me by asking questions regarding my take on the subject matter I am discussing.
These last two months the coach has asked few questions during our sessions. I have come ready to talk…a lot…. about…thresholds.
I realize that with the imminence of my mother’s passing, I am at one of life’s thresholds, one of those places where life changes from one thing into another.
From past experience I know threshold experiences can be jarring, even emotionally violent. Going back I can think of four or five threshold experiences: My Conversion
My marriage
My Father’s death, My divorce
Covid…
and now…this.
In the past I was mostly unaware that I was standing at a threshold. I was certainly unaware that with a little forethought I could have turned change into a self directed chance for the life God wanted for me and deeper fulfillment. I just kind of walked through the doors and let life play out in all its glorious confusion.
Don’t get me wrong with most of my thresholds I have ended up mostly where God wanted me to be. I am living the life He desires for me now. I think some of my thresholds were unnecessarily painful… maybe even entirely unnecessary. The past is past and the only thing it is good for is as a lesson. With this threshold I feel like I am Nemo at the edge of the reef getting ready to launch out into open ocean. There are many things I know this time that I have not known before. One of the those things is that as I near this threshold I need to be more intentional than ever before about how I intend to walk on the other side of the door.
WHAT ARE SOME LESSONS YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM YOUR THRESHOLD EXPERIENCES?
Notes From the Vicarage 
I admire your hinesty and courage in facing up to things.
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Thank you Basia. I am realizing nothing will change or succeed unless I am honest with myself and others.
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I love how intentional you are through this journey with your mother.
I’ve tried to make a conscious effort – to be thankful – thinking of my own mom’s passing and thanking God for all the time we had with her and that I was so blessed to have her for my mom. It’s not easy. I discovered that it takes effort – a real conscious effort when you’re grieving, but it helped me so much as I was walking that sad journey.
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Thank you Wendy. That conscious effort is the key isn’t it? And because it is conscious and not automatic there are times when I find I am failing at keeping the effort up. In those moments I have to call myself back to center.
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Often times our thresholds have a clarifying effect. They allow us the opportunity to disregard external noise to focus on things that truly matter. How traumatic a threshold can be is dependent on how good our focus is on a daily basis.
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This is so true Jody. We have watched each other cross many thresholds in this life with varying degrees of success haven’t we?
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We certainly have my friend and I am very grateful for that.
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🙂
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ME TOO!
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We are not alone…God is with us every step of the journey , his plans for us are good
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They most certainly are Pastor Donna. It is a powerful thing to accept that the Living God is with me every step of this journey across the next threshold. His Spirit is teaching me so much!
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