John 14: 1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled, Trust in God, trust also in me. In my father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you! I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
I can’t help it…..
It’s been a life long issue…
But no one has given me a legitimate reason to stop… I dare you to try …. you won’t convince me…
Yep , It’s true….
Here it is…. the ugly truth about this pastor’s wife, mother of 3, lipstick peddling woman you see walking her little black dog ….
I get 3 maybe 4 chapters into any book……
and ……..
I flip to the end,
the last chapter…
and I read it.
I learn who lives, who dies, who wins, who loses….all before I read…. the middle.
Now…. before you judge too harshly… I do go back. I read the middle. But when I do.. I’m more relaxed because I know the end.
The middle… its always gotten kind of bad wrap…
The middle child….
The middle of any task… far enough out you can’t see the start but too far to see the finish…wether its a college class, a home improvement project, a diet, a debt management program, ….. it’s just not fun….
Tom and I were in a leadership training program many years ago… and I specifically remember getting a pep talk when we were ….. in the middle.
I once ran a 1/2 marathon…. and the hardest part…. the middle.
And now here we are in the Middle of what some claim will be over in a few weeks and others use months as their measuring stick. I keep hearing the words “if we just knew when it would end….”
Well…..In just the length of a 5 minute phone conversation with a friend and customer from California…my whole perspective has changed….
on The Middle.
This friend has had many changes in her professional life… she has switched positions and is in the transition time between the old and being completely settled into the new….. she’s in The Middle.
She shared a comment that her pastors wife made about her current season… The Middle.
“The Middle” she said “what a fun season. It’s where you feel God’s love the most.”
Wait…. sit on that for a minute.
The reasons I don’t like the middle…
I’m not at the start where I feel like I can still back out and I’m not at the end where I can look back at the experience and celebrate. Really the middle is the part where circumstances are less sure, confidence may falter if the end seems too far, there may not be any outside evidence that the road I am on is worth it. I want to flip to the end… read the conclusion and be done.
Nobody Instagrams on the middle….
The Middle… it’s the faith part. The part where all outside assurance may feel far away….
and that is where the gift is hidden and ready to be found if we open ourselves up, stop flipping to the end and wait for the revelation…
The gift of the Middle… which is just what the wise pastors wife said ….. the awesome revelation of the presence of God. Isn’t that what God wants? For us to be completely aware, and in awe of his amazing presence. To feel the abundant love that is available everyday ….
but for some reason… it takes leaving shore…. heading to a distant land…. and a good chunk of time in the Middle to realize its been there all along??
He has shown us the end and it is so good. He has promised us that he is preparing a place for us. Changing the sheets, fluffing the pillows. A place where we will live with him forever. No tears, no sorrows no COVID-19. Ahhhhh…..but for now, we wait in the Middle.
so….I’m not sure if I’m a transformed book reader… I may still, from time to time, flip to the end…
but the big stuff, the life stuff, the Middle stuff… the stuff between the starts and the finishes…
I’m looking at in a new, fresh way….
Can’t wait to see what I’ve been missing…
Loving you where you are and pointing you forward to where he is,
justbeth:)
justbeth:) 