When Everything Changes: An invitation to Trust God

I’ll be honest, I don’t like change. I don’t like when people leave, when the familiar disappears, or when the road ahead is unclear. Change always feels like it’s taking something from me, like the solid ground beneath my feet has shifted again. But lately I’m learning that change isn’t just disruption. It’s an invitation.

This past weekend, when my pastor announced that he would be moving on to a new chapter, I felt it in my gut. There was sadness, gratitude, and a quiet ache that I didn’t know how to name. It reminded me of another moment earlier this year when someone I trusted deeply stepped away from me. It wasn’t abandonment, but it felt like it. That experience left me angry and confused, and it helped me realize something I hadn’t fully faced: pastors and leaders carry these emotions too.

We talk often about trusting God, but not enough about how trust grows—through loss, uncertainty, and the letting go of control. Even our feelings, raw and unfiltered, are meant to lean on God. Faith doesn’t erase our emotions; it brings them under the shelter of His love.

Change is rarely convenient, but it’s always formative. Every transition, every goodbye, every ending carries within it an invitation from God: Will you trust Me here too? When a leader steps away or a familiar voice goes silent, something in us resists. But what if God is using the shifting to invite the whole community into something deeper—to awaken courage, gumption, and shared responsibility? Leadership in transition isn’t about pretending to be certain. It’s about staying grounded in trust when the soil around you is moving.

In spiritual direction there’s a phrase I love: holy indifference. It doesn’t mean apathy; it means releasing my will so that I can truly discern God’s. It’s the posture of open hands rather than clenched fists. In times of uncertainty, holy indifference keeps us from trying to force outcomes. It creates space for the Holy Spirit to guide and reminds us that God is at work even when we can’t see His fingerprints.

There’s a quiet reversal that happens in ministry. When a pastor leaves, the congregation feels loss. But when people leave a church, pastors feel that same loss too. It can feel like abandonment—I was loyal to you, and now you’re gone. The truth is, both sides ache. Both sides lose something. And both sides are invited to trust that love in Christ is larger than attendance, proximity, or role.

We don’t talk enough about the loneliness pastors carry in seasons of change. But God does His deepest forming work right there, in the tension between staying faithful and letting go. That’s where trust is forged.

Every ending holds a beginning. Every transition, however painful, is holy ground. Change is the workshop where trust is shaped. The same God who led us through comfort will lead us through uncertainty.

If you find yourself in a season of transition—whether as a pastor, a friend, or someone in the pew—take heart. God’s faithfulness doesn’t end with what’s familiar. He’s already ahead of you, writing the next chapter in love.

Coaching the Red Line integrates both life coaching and spiritual direction to help pastors, leaders, and entrepreneurs walk through change with clarity and rest.

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And if you know a pastor, are being led by a pastor, or are friends with a pastor who could use this kind of support, I’d be grateful if you’d introduce us. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give a pastor is simply pointing them to a safe place to breathe.