Through my transitions out of full-time pastoral ministry into pastoral supervision, from full-time work into part-time arrangements, and into living with Parkinson's disease, I've learnt that transition is a complex psychological process demanding our attention and understanding. I've discovered the crucial importance of knowing the lay of the land when it comes to transition. Whether you're transitioning jobs or transitioning locations, houses, life stages (from empty nesters into retirement). Everyone needs to have a better understanding of how transition works.
William Bridges' book, “Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes”, provides exactly this kind of roadmap, offering rich metaphors for understanding what transition entails.
The Danger of Misleading Metaphors
During my various transitions, I've become acutely aware that some metaphors I commonly use are not only unhelpful but harmful. Metaphors such as "turning the corner" or any imagery implying clear beginnings and endings set us up for disappointment. The trouble with these linear metaphors is that they lead us to believe we're further along than we are.
Understanding the Three Stages: A Journey Through the Wilderness
Bridges' most significant contribution is his three-stage model, powerfully illustrated using the biblical narrative of Moses leading the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. Bridges recognised that "the neutral zone is like the wilderness through which Moses led his people."² Though not a Christian himself, Bridges seemed to enjoy using biblical metaphors.
Stage One: Endings and the Egypt We Must Leave
The first stage requires confronting loss. As Bridges puts it, "transition always starts with an ending. To become something else, you have to stop being what you are now."³ This isn't simply about external changes—it's about the death of something within ourselves to make room for something new to be born. The biblical pattern is clear: before resurrection comes crucifixion, before new life comes death.
In leaving full-time pastoral ministry, I confronted not just job loss, but the loss of an identity that had defined me for years. I've also walked closely with a friend whose boss made her leave almost immediately after giving notice, denying her proper farewells. The suddenness caused tremendous grief—how we handle endings profoundly affects our ability to move through subsequent stages.
Stage Two: The Wilderness of the Neutral Zone
This wilderness period is the Neutral Zone. This is where real transition work occurs. Like the Israelites wandering forty years between slavery and the Promised Land, we find ourselves in an in-between time when the old is gone but the new isn't fully operational. Some authors refer to this in-between space as the 'liminal space', a threshold place that is simultaneously disorienting and sacred, yet also evokes great fear. This fear is understandable; we are neither who we were nor who we are becoming.
The biblical wilderness narratives—Moses' forty years, Jesus' forty days, Elijah's journey to Mount Horeb—all point to the same truth: the wilderness is where transformation happens. During this stage, productivity often drops and confusion increases, yet this is precisely when new possibilities can emerge if we resist filling the space too quickly.
Stage Three: New Beginnings and the Promised Land
The final stage involves genuine new beginnings—not returning to old patterns with minor modifications, but what Bridges describes as "new understandings, values and attitudes... marked by a release of energy in a new direction."⁴ Like the Israelites entering the Promised Land, this represents a fundamental transformation of identity and purpose.
The Wilderness as Divine Meeting Place
While Bridges provides a profound psychological framework, there's a deeper spiritual dimension to the wilderness that deserves particular attention. The wilderness is where we discover greater intimacy with God. It's the place where we are stripped bare back to what is core to who we are—children of God.
During my experience of burnout, God stripped me back to the bare bones over those two months. He took away my identity as a pastor, removed many of the trappings of ministry, and I was left with just me and him, me and the Lord, getting back to that fundamental identity as a child of God. From this core truth, I began rebuilding a new life.
This stripping away isn't punishment—it's purification. When everything else falls away, what remains is what has always been true: we are beloved children of God. The wilderness becomes not just a place of waiting, but a place of intimate encounter where God meets us in our vulnerability and reminds us of who we truly are beneath all our roles and achievements.
The biblical wilderness narratives bear witness to this pattern. Moses encountered the burning bush in the wilderness. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he faced temptation but also experienced the Father's provision through angels. Elijah heard God's still, small voice not in the earthquake or fire, but in the gentle whisper that came after his desperate flight to Mount Horeb.
In our modern context, this divine intimacy in the wilderness might feel anything but intimate—it often feels like abandonment. Yet it's precisely in this apparent emptiness that God does some of his deepest work, calling us back to the bedrock truth of who we are in him.
The Central Role of Loss and Death
At the heart of Bridges' understanding lies a profound biblical truth: genuine transformation requires a kind of death. "We resist transition not because we can't accept the change, but because we can't accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up."⁵ This death and rebirth pattern runs throughout Scripture—Israel dying to slavery before birth as a free nation, Jesus' death and resurrection as the archetypal pattern for all human transformation.
Learning to Navigate Rather than Master
Bridges reminds us that "Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won't work."⁶ The goal isn't to master transition but to understand the territory well enough to navigate it with greater awareness.
Through both Bridges' insights and biblical wisdom, several practical principles emerge:
Expect the wilderness.
The in-between time isn't a problem to be solved but a necessary passage to be lived through. Even Jesus needed forty days in the wilderness before beginning his ministry.
Name the losses.
Being specific about what we're leaving behind helps us process the grief and prevents unfinished emotional business from sabotaging new beginnings.
Find support for the journey.
The Israelites had Moses to guide them through the wilderness; we also need companions and guides for our transitions. Find as many supporters as you can for your journey. Look out for those God-given wise people who will be a blessing for your journey.
Don't rush the wilderness.
Resist the temptation to rush through or skip over the in-between time. The wilderness is a divine meeting place—don't miss the opportunity to deepen your relationship with the Lord in ways that are only possible when everything else has been stripped away. I have been guilty of this many times. I skipped straight on to the next thing even before I finished the last thing to prevent having to go through the wilderness.
Trust the process.
As the psalmist wrote, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). Bridges helps us understand that endings are not finalities but necessary preconditions for renewal.
Conclusion
William Bridges' Transitions provides a compassionate guide for life's most challenging yet inevitable experiences. His recognition that transition begins with ending, his mapping of the wilderness Neutral Zone, and his understanding of genuine new beginnings echo profound biblical wisdom.
Yet there's something even deeper at work in these passages. When we understand the wilderness as a divine meeting place—where God strips away everything non-essential to reveal our core identity as his children—the promised land we eventually reach isn't just a new set of circumstances. It's a transformed life built on the bedrock of who we truly are in God.
By learning the lay of the land, we can navigate these passages with greater skill and hope. Rather than "turning the corner," perhaps we might think of transition as a journey through the wilderness—sometimes long, often difficult, but ultimately leading to a promised land we could never have reached without first leaving Egypt behind, and without discovering in that barren place the God who meets us in our deepest need.
Footnotes
¹ William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, Revised 25th Anniversary Edition (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004), 3.
² William Bridges, "Getting Them Through The Wilderness: A Leader's Guide to Transition," William Bridges Associates, 2006.
³ Bridges, Transitions, 11.
⁴ Bridges, Transitions, 155.
⁵ Bridges, Transitions, 155.
⁶ Bridges, Transitions, 3.
⁷ Psalm 30:5 (NIV).