So often, we can approach the need for transition in life with a “project” mindset. We set goals, make plans, and measure progress. This approach works well for careers, education, fitness, or even home improvement.
While it’s natural to apply the same logic to our finding a good transitional housing program—thinking that if we just work hard enough, follow the right steps, or check off the right boxes, we’ll “arrive” at that perfect place and everything will be better.
But the question is: ‘Better than what?’ What is the “better” that we’re trying to get to? So often I have to change the Intake process of our Transitional Housing program, because so many are just seeking to check off the boxes, say the right things. Even use the Christian lingo as a way of gaining entrance. It becomes for them like a project. Then when they arrive, they quickly fall right back into the former patterns that caused their being “house-less” or their chronic homelessness. 
Perhaps, it’s not so much about making it a project where you can just settle more comfortably at a new location, and finally put the past horrors behind.
Each of us can agree that we’d like a better, new and improved situation whether it’s where we live, or we work, or even a better spouse. But the difficulty is that the real problem is you and I. Personally, I am the biggest obstacle to my own better life if I just make it all about me, and my need for better and better circumstances all the time.
No doubt God wants to move you and I to a better, more quality position in life. Be it a better job, spouse or living situation. But God isn’t just trying to change the outward, but the inward.
For God to move you to a better quality of life He will not work in your circumstances as much as He will work in you personally. If I don’t become who I need to be, I can’t function (literally) in the new level of success that God has for me. There has to be a period of probation. A time where you or I come to qualify, or mature to that role first.
Don’t move past this. If circumstances change to make my life better, the improvements will never last; either I or the people involved will destroy them. You already know this to be true. But if I improve in my character, understanding, self-control, or some other area, my life changes stick.
So personal change is now a wonderful journey, rather than a “project” that brings me to the best God has!
