Think of it like swinging on monkey bars.
You have to let go of the bar behind you before you can fully grip the bar in front of you.
That is how change works.
The old management team leaves. A new one comes in.
Suddenly, the meeting times change. The emails look different. Traditional company events disappear. New furniture arrives. The unspoken rules you used to rely on? They don't work anymore.
This is the "messy middle" of a transition.
When a new management team takes over, it never feels smooth. It feels clunky. They don't know where the files are stored. They ask questions that seem obvious. They change processes that were working just fine before.
Your instinct is to say: "This is broken. The old way was better. I’m going to wait until these new people figure it out before I trust them."
But that is exactly what the Israelites did a long time ago.
In the book of Exodus, the Israelites left Egypt (the Old Way) to go to the Promised Land (the New Way).
But they didn't get there instantly. They had to go through the Wilderness.
The Wilderness was hot, scary, and unfamiliar. And what did the people do? They complained.
They actually said, "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost." (Numbers 11:5).
Think about that. They were slaves in Egypt. But because the transition was hard, they romanticized the past. They preferred the "slavery they knew" over the "freedom they didn't understand yet."
Sometimes we do the exact same thing.
We say, "Well, the old boss might have been grumpy, but at least I knew what to expect." We complain about the new leaders because they aren't perfect. But who is?
Here is the lesson: The Promised Land is never comfortable right away.
If you are in the middle of a change, you seem to be in the Wilderness. It is supposed to be uncomfortable. That isn't a sign of failure; it is a sign of movement.
You cannot follow a new leader if you are constantly looking over your shoulder at the old one.
What happened to the complainers? They wandered in circles for 40 years. Every single person who complained died in the Wilderness. They never entered the Promised Land. They never saw the victory.
What about the group that moved forward even if it was hard? Joseph and Caleb were the only two from that generation who survived. They had to wait, but eventually they entered the Promised Land.
They defeated the giants. They received their inheritance. They thrived because they looked at the scary change and said, "We trust the plan of the One who made it."
Stop looking back at Egypt. Help the new team build the map.
Comments
Post a Comment