I actually feel it before I hear it. As I come to a stop at the intersection, I roll down the car windows and smile. A drumline! Memories flood back of band practice and football games. It’s the same feeling I’ve gotten these last few weeks every time I’ve gone to Target. With the aisles of notebooks and pens, crayons and backpacks there’s a sense that I should be stocking up, gearing up for a new year. Fall can’t be far behind (please!) and with it the promise of a respite from these long hot days of summer.

As children, the start of a new school year was our practice run for the grown up ritual of making New Year’s resolutions. We started with a clean slate, sharpened pencils and notebooks full of paper just waiting to be written on. THIS was going to be the year we finally became who we wanted to be: the pretty one, the athletic one, the popular one, the smart one, the cool one. The nicest thing about growing up is the ability to reconcile the person you are with the person you wanted to be! But the feeling that you could truly start over every fall was so exciting! And sometimes…it was a little scary.

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Things are happening. God is moving. You don’t have to go far to notice, and you don’t have to go simply to the Bible to hear stories of God’s activities in this world. He is near, and He is active. Last week I spoke with a friend who was having marriage problems. He and his wife submitted to God and his marriage is being healed. Another friend of mine had two deaths in his immediate family back to back. He is slowly learning to let God shoulder the pain of that loss, and he is healing also. Both of my friends are healing because at the very core of who God is, we find a healer.

Have you noticed the innumerable references to healing in Scripture? Jesus healed blind men (Matt. 9:27), lepers (Mark 1), the lame (Mark 2), and even those snatched away by death (Luke 8). But his healing touch wasn’t limited to those with physical problems. He also healed greed (Luke 19), regret (John 4), and doubt (Mark 9). He heals everything he touches. It’s in his nature because he is a healer.

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I’ve been at Singing Oaks just a little over 4 years now, and it has been a wild ride. I have worked with a couple hundred different teens, gone to 8 camps, 2 backpacking trips, multiple retreats, service projects, had a son, preached 3 sermons and taught close to 400 Bible classes. If I were to pick two words to best describe my time here, I would choose blessed and transition.

Who likes transition? Well, everybody and nobody. It all depends on what or who is transitioning. For example, a move from one house to another can cause many mixed emotions. It can generate excitement for a fresh start, sadness at the loss of a childhood room, or great joy in that child who will finally get her own room (or frustration that I should have gotten a larger truck, because we have too much stuff!). Transitions can simply be transitions with no emotional response.

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