Life never stops, one stage ends and another begins; we’re always transitioning. A transition is the time period between one stage and another. Some transitions are natural occurrences while others are forced on us. Transitions are always stressful especially those that we are forced into. Like being laid off and finding yourself in a challenging transition, or your spouse leaving you forcing you into a rough transition. Perhaps, it’s the unexpected loss of a loved that leaves you in a horrific transition.

Even though we may not know where or when the transition will end, we do know that eventually, we’ll get through it. The question is, what do I do in the meantime? Sometimes our response is to manipulate or resist. But a better response is to trust God, especially when you find yourself in a difficult transition. Because your difficult transition is not only an opportunity for God to do his best work in you, it’s also an opportunity for him to do his best work through you.

Joseph was only seventeen years old when his brothers sold him into slavery and forced him into a horrible twenty-seven-year transition. The first years he spent as a slave in Egypt and the remaining years he spent in jail. It wasn’t until Joseph was thirty years old that he was set free and became the second in command in Egypt. But it was still another fourteen years later that his transition finally ended.

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. – Genesis 50:19-20 NIV

In the end, God used Joseph’s difficult transition to turn him into the most powerful man in the world. But what God accomplished in Joseph was dwarfed by what he did through Him. God not only made Joseph the most powerful person, but he also used him to save his family from a deadly famine. A family that later became the people of Israel, through which God eventually sent Jesus our Lord and Savior into this world. Amazing!

In his twenty-seven-year transition, what Joseph did is what we should do, react to all of the injustices, suffering, and pain with the certainty that God is in control. Giving God the opportunity to do his best work in us and through us.