Day 148: Changing Hands

Today's Reading: 1 King 1-2; Psalms 37, 71, 94

The other day, I was carrying a five gallon bucket of water. As it grew heavy, my fingers numbed and my arm ached with muscle strain. It was time to change hands.

As I passed the bucket to my left hand, there was some spillage of water. Though I tried to be careful in the transition, I lost some of the contents of the bucket.

Changing hands from one place of strength to another is necessary in all of life. Teachers give students over to other teachers, parents play tag team, pastors receive calls to other parishes and new strength comes to carry on.

But these changing hand times, these transitions, though they bring release and relief, naturally bring loss of one kind or another. Besides the grieving and angst with leadership change, there is often a vacuum or flux in power which causes turmoil.

For the best transitions to occur, this reality and recognition of loss is essential for the leader who is leaving. As one's strength wanes, one cannot just become chilled, lie in bed and hope for a young, beautiful maiden to attend one's last years. One must specifically prepare the kingdom and empower the new leader.

The more attention paid to this time of passing the bucket from one hand to the other, the fewer the drops spilled, whether it be water...

...or blood.

LORD,
awaken us to the transitions
all around us.
May we pass gently
the load
we carry
to the next
hand.