Whether we are anticipating Monday morning or anticipating September 1st. We are always in between something. As I read her post I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of agreement and connection to her perspective. Kyle and I are at the center of an in-between right now.
Excitement, eagerness, hopefulness, restlessness, fear, discontent, homesickness, anticipation...these things are a constant struggle for the "in-betweeners." You don't have to be going to Liberia to know what I am talking about. Maybe it is the loss of a job...maybe it is the completion of college...maybe you are just road weary...YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I responded to the gypsy mama's post by saying, "We are the "in-between people" and God is our big solid bookends...yeah, big solid bookends." Our Alpha and Omega God hedges us in at every turn. Providing food for the hungry sojourner and cool water to quench the aching heart. Our story may ebb and flow at lightning speed or a snails pace. It may be all up hill or as curvy as a mountain pass.
The Alpha and Omega promises stand:
I will never leave you or forsake you..
I am the way, the truth and the life...
I will bring my good work to completion in your life...
I lead you beside the still waters...
I restore your soul...
I know the plans that I have for you...
The truth is that the only way to fight this "in-betweener" syndrome is to continue moving in the direction of God and clinging, sometimes with battered hands, to his promises. He is leading...meeting us at every step...As Lisa-Jo (the gypsy mama) put it,
Maybe you dread the in between. Be encouraged friend – because when Christ moves in, we can comfortably make our home in the in between..."
Kyle and I are uncomfortable yet somehow strangely comfortable with where we are. We are trusting that God sees us in our tiny corner of the world. We fight to trust that He will provide day by day by day...He is faithful, He will surely do it. (I Thessalonians 5:24)
Please check out Lisa-Jo's full post at (in)courage
Also, Lisa-Jo mentions Linda at Grandma's Letters from Africa I've been blessed to cross paths with Linda and I think you will be blessed by her words too. So scrap whatever else you have to do today and read their blogs!
In other news:
This week should prove to be filled with potlucks and pandemonium as we are scheduled to speak to 3 1/2 groups! Plus I am helping with a slumber party on Friday night...yowzers! Pray...HARD! Updates to come! Maybe even with pictures!
Peace folks,
Kyle and Jessica
Ah, Jessica, when I saw your comment the other day about "We are the in-between people and God is our big solid bookends," I just knew you'd craft it into a blog post! You've created such a sense of God's protective security with that image. Thanks for sharing that encouragement with me and so many others. :)
ReplyDeleteHow can you speak at 3 and a HALF groups?!!
Blessings to you and Kyle as you hover in the in-between.
Linda