The past month has been a time for my family to settle into the same zip code again after three months of separated living. As you know, our entry into life with Yates was staggered in an effort to accommodate family and church needs simultaneously. I transitioned into the pastorate and my family wrapped up life in our previous place of service. Before the new thing could come to pass, we needed to be tending to where we were and where we would be – at once. Frankly, it was harder than I thought it would be.
Your patience and care across that season was remarkable. Your gifts, meals, cards and prayers have been sustaining and encouraging expressions of your care for me and mine. We are overwhelmed by the generous gift card pounding! Please know of our sincere gratitude. Your giving and your care has all made the waiting and stress of being “in-between times” a time to grow instead of simply something to wait out or endure.
It seems to me that a lot of life is spent in the paradox of “already…and not yet.” Every day is something of an in-between time as we wait and work the pieces and parts of our lives from what they were into what they can – and should – be as we grow and mature in life and faith.
Yes, our days are often messier in-between ones, more incomplete than we like. However, that is not a call to neglect the living of this day, no matter what new thing might be around the corner or lingering in the recesses of the past. How much time and opportunity is wasted wishing our days away waiting for what believe might be around the corner, or stuck in some vision of the way things were? Sometimes, we Christians wait to commit to ministry because we’re not yet of the “spiritual caliber” we believe we need to attain. Entire churches avoid taking faith steps because they cannot anticipate all outcomes. The tension of the in-between times can be paralyzing.
I think the present moment is the very crucible in which God is refining us and the world toward God’s good purposes, and the vulnerability of the in-between times is where we learn to place ever-increasing trust in God. We can look back and see evidence of God’s good work in our lives, our church and the world. We hope for things to come to full flower in God’s time. We cannot inhabit the past or the future, though. Where we are is where we are, and there is no other place God would have us to be. Even when we feel the tension of inhabiting the in-between place, remember the Psalmist’s song: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Be glad. Be glad. Be glad. Especially when your life is already…and not yet.
Blessings,