The Middle
By way of update, I've already read 4 books this year! This being intentional thing is really panning out. :)
One of the things I've noticed as I've been reading more lately is that there is a lot of "middle." At the beginning of the story, you find out what is missing in the main character's life, what their dream is, what dream got stolen, what they need in order to have their "happy ending." Then, at the end of the book, they get whatever it was they were looking for -- or something better, something they didn't know they were looking for but is what they really needed all along.
And the rest is all middle. Anywhere from 120 to 400 pages of middle. Ups and downs. So close yet so far. It's after they have their dream but before it comes to fruition.
The Bible is like this too. Randy and I just finished reading the book of Job. In the first two chapters, we meet Job, a guy who has everything going for him, and then who has it all taken away. Then in chapter 42, he has it all restored. But most of the book -- chapters 3-41 -- are all "middle." It's dealing with the pain, the heartache, the ups, the downs, the doubts, the fears, the accusations. Somewhere around chapter 30 Randy asked, "What is he complaining about?" It had been so long since Job had lost his farm, his family, his health, that we had completely lost sight of the beginning of the story and where we were heading.
Life is like that, isn't it. God puts a dream in our heart, but it can take so long to have it realized that we often forget that we ever had a dream, a promise, a hope. Or we feel like it will never come to fruition.
So it's in the middle that we have to be intentional about remembering the promise at the beginning and the dream that we are working toward. Otherwise we, like Job, can end up complaining our way to our happy ending.
In my own life I can see where I'm at the beginning of one dream, the middle of another, and nearing the end of one more.
I will tell you about just one of those. Three and a half years ago I left my job in Indiana. A few months later I put my house on the market. Everyone was wondering what was taking me so long. Why didn't I have my house on the market sooner? What was the hold up? The market in Richmond, Indiana, is terrible. It could take years to sell. But I trusted my gut and put the house on the market the first of November, believing God that it would be sold before Christmas. And it was! Except that it was sold on land contract, meaning that they would pay me monthly for the next two years and then a lump sum at the end. Well, the end of that two years was December of 2014. By January of 2015 I knew my lump sum was not "in the mail." We extended the contract another year, but my realtor and I both had our doubts as to whether this would be wrapped up by the end of 2015. Would I be getting monthly payments for the next 30 years?
Last year was definitely a "middle" for me: far from signing the original contract but also far from the finalization of it. But it was in that middle that I remembered: God was so present in the selling of my house. He put on my heart that it would be sold in a matter of weeks in a market that said that was impossible, and it happened!, so I had to believe that he was still in the process and in his timing all of this would be wrapped up. And it looks like it will be! Papers are being drawn up and that final payment may actually be in the mail.
Maybe, like me, you are in the middle, struggling with why am I doing this and why is this happening to me and will it ever end. But it is in the middle that, if we are intentional, we grow the most, learn to trust, and can enjoy the journey to our Promised Land.
One of the things I've noticed as I've been reading more lately is that there is a lot of "middle." At the beginning of the story, you find out what is missing in the main character's life, what their dream is, what dream got stolen, what they need in order to have their "happy ending." Then, at the end of the book, they get whatever it was they were looking for -- or something better, something they didn't know they were looking for but is what they really needed all along.
And the rest is all middle. Anywhere from 120 to 400 pages of middle. Ups and downs. So close yet so far. It's after they have their dream but before it comes to fruition.
The Bible is like this too. Randy and I just finished reading the book of Job. In the first two chapters, we meet Job, a guy who has everything going for him, and then who has it all taken away. Then in chapter 42, he has it all restored. But most of the book -- chapters 3-41 -- are all "middle." It's dealing with the pain, the heartache, the ups, the downs, the doubts, the fears, the accusations. Somewhere around chapter 30 Randy asked, "What is he complaining about?" It had been so long since Job had lost his farm, his family, his health, that we had completely lost sight of the beginning of the story and where we were heading.
Life is like that, isn't it. God puts a dream in our heart, but it can take so long to have it realized that we often forget that we ever had a dream, a promise, a hope. Or we feel like it will never come to fruition.
So it's in the middle that we have to be intentional about remembering the promise at the beginning and the dream that we are working toward. Otherwise we, like Job, can end up complaining our way to our happy ending.
In my own life I can see where I'm at the beginning of one dream, the middle of another, and nearing the end of one more.
I will tell you about just one of those. Three and a half years ago I left my job in Indiana. A few months later I put my house on the market. Everyone was wondering what was taking me so long. Why didn't I have my house on the market sooner? What was the hold up? The market in Richmond, Indiana, is terrible. It could take years to sell. But I trusted my gut and put the house on the market the first of November, believing God that it would be sold before Christmas. And it was! Except that it was sold on land contract, meaning that they would pay me monthly for the next two years and then a lump sum at the end. Well, the end of that two years was December of 2014. By January of 2015 I knew my lump sum was not "in the mail." We extended the contract another year, but my realtor and I both had our doubts as to whether this would be wrapped up by the end of 2015. Would I be getting monthly payments for the next 30 years?
Last year was definitely a "middle" for me: far from signing the original contract but also far from the finalization of it. But it was in that middle that I remembered: God was so present in the selling of my house. He put on my heart that it would be sold in a matter of weeks in a market that said that was impossible, and it happened!, so I had to believe that he was still in the process and in his timing all of this would be wrapped up. And it looks like it will be! Papers are being drawn up and that final payment may actually be in the mail.
Maybe, like me, you are in the middle, struggling with why am I doing this and why is this happening to me and will it ever end. But it is in the middle that, if we are intentional, we grow the most, learn to trust, and can enjoy the journey to our Promised Land.
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