When your in-between life events or life stages it can be a challenge to know how to go about each day. We struggle with this as kids. There’s a name for it now, “tween.” As in when you’re not a teenager, but you’re not a kid anymore either. Then there’s the phase before you get your driver’s license. The phase before you get your own car. The phase before you get married. The phase before, the phase before, the phase before…
It’s the meantime. When you’re living in the meantime, it’s hard to know what to do and how to think. The disciples were living in the meantime between the time of Jesus’ ascension and the day of pentecost. They knew they were supposed to wait and pray, but when was the Holy Spirit going to come? What would it look like and sound like? Would we know for sure when it happened? And what do we do now? Sure, we’re supposed to pray and wait, but what do we do when the waiting gets long and hard?
What I have learned is that most of life is lived in some kind of meantime. I think we are always in-between something. We’re always finishing one thing and about to start another. We’re always unsure of what’s just around the corner. We wait and pray expectantly for God to do things, but when God does one thing we notice another that we are still waiting on – or a new thing crops up.
The meantimes is hard for us. We want assurance. We want to know how things are going to work out. We are used to getting resolution at the end of a 22 minute show on Netflix. We are used to binge-watching a series so we know how it ends. We are used to being able to solve our own uneasiness. But real life seldom works that way.
So, how do we respond?
First we pray and wait. We know that God is going to do something and His time is perfect. As much as we wish He would move on our timeline, His timeline has been established before we were created, so we know his timing is best. While we wait we pray. We pray and listen. We pray and expect. We pray.
Second we lean into our relationship with God. As a kid, when you weren’t sure of something you would grab your parents hand or bury your head in their chest. When we aren’t sure of what’s going to happen, we need to cling tightly to the hand of our savior.
Third, we press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. We press on in our walk with God. We press on in our pursuit of righteousness. We press on serving and doing good. We press on to be disciples and followers. We press on in what we know while we wait for the unknown.
Fourth, we have faith. We may not know what’s going to happen, but we have faith in the God who has made all things. We may be unsure of our future, but we know the God who sees the past, present and future all at the same time. We have faith that God will work all things out for the good of those who have been called according to His great purpose.
What meantime do you find yourself in today? Can you lean into God a little more and trust He’s got it all under control?