Five Minute Friday: In Between

And this is what I’ve been doing for five months now, though some Thursday/Fridays it seems like I’ve been doing it for SO much longer. And sometimes it feels like I just started. Connect with a bunch of amazing, faith-filled women through Lisa-Jo’s site. Wait for the prompt at midnight (or nine pm for the lucky west coasters who don’t have to wait up as late). Write for five minutes flat. Don’t over think. Don’t over edit. Post it. Link it. Share it. Visit the writer ahead of you – share the encouragement, share the love. Come back and do it again next week.

This Week: In Between

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If you don’t live in the present and relish each and every moment, you can lose so much of your life in between. And you won’t even realize it. For a while, I drifted without purpose and found myself in the between times in so many areas: between boyfriends, between semesters at school, deciding between majors and what direction my life needed to head towards, between jobs, between apartments. None of those times of being in between seemed really serious.

And then my desert journey began. Like most of my between times I didn’t define it immediately. I was taking a break from a bad work situation and wasn’t in a terrible hurry to get into another one. In my mind, I wasn’t between anything. I was just done. But life doesn’t have a pause button – you can’t just freeze time and take a break – things are still moving and happening around you - and before I realized it, I was well and truly between. Except this time, it seemed like the stakes were higher.

This time, my in between was a crossroads – choosing to continue forward and meander like I had been; hoping to get it right (maybe); or making a deliberate choice with my direction and moving ahead with purpose. In making my choice to be purposeful, I chose to let that three year “in between time” become a healing and teaching time – a time when God hid me away from the world for a while; allowed me to learn and grow; revealed so much of Himself to me through great books and teachers and solid study in His word.

Sometimes the in between can feel like an indefinite hovering – a great suspension of momentum where nothing is happening and everything and everyone is moving past you.

This is the time that you need to release control, rest in His arms, and relinquish control.

Hard? Oh yes – I’m a total control freak – I know what I’m asking of you. But sometimes these in between times are incubating times. Where God is growing you, nurturing you, and preparing you. Because He’s got something really amazing planned for your life, and He wants you to be ready when He lifts the curtain and reveals His plans. I’ll leave you with this:

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;

do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.

Psalm 37: 3-8

 

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How to Join:
Want to know how Five Minute Friday got started and how to participate? All the details are here. No editing or second guessing. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community