Right now, I’m in-between places.
Wait. I’m always in-between places.
In my childhood, my in-between places happened from one birthday until the next.
As a teenager, it was between the time I got my driver’s permit until I got my license.
When I graduated from high school, it was between graduation night and the day I left for college.
As a young adult, it was between the job I took that I hated at age 22 because the world said I needed a job and the job I found at age 24 that lead to a meaningful career in higher education.
As a mom, it’s been the day I discovered I was pregnant until the day I got to meet each one of my little bundles of joy.
Right now, my in-between places look like the week between Christmas and the New Year.
It’s from the moment my eldest graduated from high school three ago until the youngest graduates this spring.
It’s from the ending of my marriage and the date stamped on the divorce decree until I marry again.
It’s from March of 2020 until whenever COVID is no longer a thing.
Invite Jesus to your in-between place. He will change everything.
Sigh.
As children, we are told we have to be patient because after all, good things come to those who wait.
To be honest, I think we’re told that no matter our age.
But it doesn’t make it any easier.
And as any good Jesus girl would do, when I find myself in these places, I pray, I seek wise counsel, I do what I know to do, and…I claim to surrender it completely to God.
Me peeking to see if God needs my help.
Then I wonder what’s taking so long when the in-between season lasts longer than I thought.
So I pray some more. I talk to my friends some more. I add tears to those prayers and conversations with friends.
And right before bedtime I throw a mini-tantrum and tell God how unfair He is.
I know…..I have been known to throw a tantrum before God to get my way.
But God.
He’s so faithful.
And full of Grace.
And patient.
Because this has happened more times than I’d like to admit. Each and every time, He listens, clarifies, corrects, and convicts me with the truth that can only be found in His word.
If you’re like me, you may feel too overwhelmed with your situation to even know where to start looking when you pick up the Bible. Take a minute and think about these people…and their in-between places.
The woman at the well
Esther
Ruth
Naomi (she even got a little bitter behind her in-between place)
King Jehoshaphat
Gideon
Abraham
Nehemiah
Zaccheus
Do you see where I’m going here?
When the word of God is our guide, in-between places are more normal than not. God wants us to move toward the goodness He has planned for us. But what do we do when challenges stop our forward momentum? What’s the next step when we fall into a pit of despair with the determination knocked right out of us?
Buy your copy of The In-Between Place here: https://www.katarmstrong.com/the-in-between-place
Author Kat Armstrong’s new release, The In-Between Place, offers deeply important insights to anyone who feels stuck in a holding place and can’t see a way forward. It is for the person who feels that if she looks left, her face will be scraped by an immovable boulder, and if she looks right, she’ll see nothing but hard to handle. It’s for the person who feels lost and is not sure she is worth the effort to be found, for the person who feels overlooked and unfulfilled. Because sometimes Jesus saves our greatest spiritual breakthroughs for our in-between places.
Read it. You’ll be glad you did.
Can you think of any in-between places you’ve visited, and how you survived your time there?
Hey Twilli 