I watched a sickening video of a man being attacked in broad daylight by two criminals who were robbing him. It was brutal and animalistic.  It is upsetting that such blatant acts of violence take place. Lawlessness is on the rise. It is wise to learn how to reduce the odds of becoming a victim of attacks both in a natural and a spiritual context.

Those who teach others how to protect themselves and survive in a violent world use a phrase to describe a particular place of jeopardy where the likelihood of an attack is higher than normal. The phrase is “Transition Space.” Transition Space is an area of travel that has a person leaving a secure location to transition through a vulnerable space en route to the next secure location. In the transition, a person must be situationally aware and on a higher level of alertness prepared for the possibility of an attack.

For example, the transition between leaving a store and walking to our car in a parking lot is a space of vulnerable transition. So is leaving our home to walk the dog or pulling into a garage while the garage door is still closing. Criminals look for their prey in these transition zones knowing their victims are more vulnerable and accessible because they are distracted. 

Apart from the possibility of a physical criminal attack, there are transitions in our spiritual lives that make us vulnerable. A compromise of our sexual integrity makes us vulnerable when we linger over an unclean thought or image. So does moving from one church to the next for the wrong reason. We become vulnerable when we judge another person instead of offering mercy. The thugs of hell see us as easy prey when we harden our hearts to the voice of the Spirit and wise counsel.

Jan has been patient for the last 49 years with her extra vigilant ex-cop husband. I took too many sad reports of victims who were not aware of the vulnerable transitions that made them easy prey. Never taking a walk with earbuds while listening to music, having her arms filled with bags of groceries while fumbling for her car keys, or failing to look behind her while pulling into our garage have been part of our family awareness training.

While those practical issues of preparation and awareness are important considerations, we need to spend even more time preparing to protect ourselves when we enter the spiritual space of a life transition where we become more vulnerable to the lies of hell. Those transitions can make us easy prey if we have not been trained on how to survive. Just as a security consultant would review a client’s daily habits to determine their transition spaces of vulnerability, so it should be for each of us when entering a season of transition. Be aware – be safe!

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8).