The Inbetween.

I’m pretty sure I’ve linked this blog before.  And if I haven’t, it is sorely overdue.  It’s full of honest reflections of a family that up and moved to Haiti to serve Jesus. 

Anyway, she recently posted this quote, which spoke to me exactly where we are.  It also has such application to the journey of foster parenting, for my foster parent blog friends.  Always Inbetween.

There's a place between here and there.  A piece of ground in the middle of take-off and landing.  A section of the unknown within beginning and ending.  You probably find yourself there from time to time.  It's the land known as Inbetween.


Inbetween is one of the most rugged places in life.  You aren't fully here, and you aren't fully there.  Your emotions and hopes are strewn across an endless list of possibilities.  Door knobs of wood, brass, and silver line the path, but which will open?  In the land of Inbetween, the paths are lined with sealed envelopes and foggy dreams.  Excitement runs forward and fears hold back.  And if you stay long enough, you feel the tremors of  your soul.


The land of Inbetween is downright scary.  It's a place of blind trust.  It's where the pedals of faith meet the narrow road of fortitude and where movement is demanded though there's no place to go.  The worst part of this land isn't the uncertainty or frustration that accompany it - it's that God likes it when you're there.


While He's no sadist, God loves the land of Inbetween.  He loves what it does to us.  He loves the humility and dependence it creates in our hearts, so He creates innumerable forks in life's road that swerve us into the land of Inbetween.  The unknowns of job, marriage, children, and home are the signs of this uncertain land.  At times, people are thrust into Inbetween by mishaps, accidents, sudden deaths, and even unexpected fortune.  Some people visit so many times they begin to wonder if it's life.  And they aren't far off.


So what will hold you steady when you walk through the terrain of Inbetween?  A recognition that Inbetween is God's design.  In one miraculous moment, the Creator of the universe placed you in the greatest Inbetween of all time - the place between the earthly creation and eternity.  Life's smaller lunges forward and backward are merely postcard reminders that there's something greater than this place we're visiting.


If you're in your own land of Inbetween, remember that God was the original designer of this journey.  You can get mad, scream, and even pout if you want. But it doesn't change the fact that you're merely passing through.  Everything else is Inbetween.  (from Deeper Walk, a Relevant Devotional Series)

 

  This is such a good reminder that this longing that I feel in my soul while we are preparing, waiting, planning, mapping, trusting, is only a picture of my soul’s real longing.  A longing to get where we’re really headed.  A longing to be home and done and settled.  A longing to know that where I am is where I will be.

  A picture comes to mind of Fred Flinstone.  (Of course, the me version of Fred is well, uh, less Fred-ish.  And less covered in animal skins.)  My feet are moving.  Very quickly.  The dust is gathering behind me.  Eventually my feet will hit the ground, and we’ll be moving.  I guess this revving up of sorts is just as important as the moment our feet hit the ground.  (Although, I don’t envision myself yelling Yabadabadoo.) 

  (Come to think of it, lets forget about the Fred Flinstone thing.  It’s the baby brain I tell you.)

 

  Anyway.  This was refreshing for my soul.  We are inbetween, but we won’t be forever.  And God is using this time just as much as he will use our time in our perceived destination.  And it’s only when we get to our real destination that we will truly be out of The Inbetween.