Living in the In-Between
We’ve been examining in are time together this whole idea of seizing the day and living our lives according to God’s purpose. What I’d like to do today is continue with these thoughts and look again at God’s purpose and how we go about living our lives in-between its inception and its completion.
I’ve looked at this concept in the past, but I believe it really fits well with this new trajectory the Lord has us on.
Living life as a Christian goes something like this: God gives us a vision, a calling, and a purpose, but He doesn’t give us all the details. This is disturbing to those who like things neat and orderly, or at least somewhat under control. Instead what happens is that we receive these details and instructions along the way as we continue to look to Jesus, the author and perfecter/ finisher of our faith.
That’s how God planned it because He knows that we just don’t like to call home, that is, we don’t pray as we should, and like any parent God wants to talk with us, so He withholds the details and gives them along the way as we travel on this journey of faith, this journey towards spiritual transformation.
Far too often, however, we miss out on the life God gives because we mistakenly think that life happens when we reach our intended goal. But when we do we miss the life God has planned because we fail to realize that life happens in-between as we walk the path between now and then.
And so many people find themselves empty and disillusioned because when they finally do reach their goal they’ve missed the whole point as to why God gave them that goal in the first place, which is so they can experience His abundant life in the process.
Now, I know what many of you are thinking, “If what I am going through, the pain and suffering, the mental anguish and emotional turmoil is God’s abundant life for me, then give me less abundance.”
Yet, consider Paul, who when through hell and back, being stoned, whipped, beaten, imprisoned, just to name a few, and then struck with a physical disease which he prayed three times for God to remove it, yet through it all He experienced God’s abundance, when the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient and My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
It was God’s abundance grace through the trials that then saw Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
And so today we’ll be looking at the life in the in-between.
These are those moments that once they’re gone they’ll never come again. God’s purpose is what happens in the in-between, and if we miss it we just might miss the life God has planned for us in the future. This is why we looked at living our lives in such as way that we’ll seize those God opportunities so we don’t miss out.
We often measured the wrong things as to what’s valuable and what’s not: like holding meetings verses holding our children or grandchildren, working for recognition verses spending more time with family and friends.
You could say; it’s the difference between being efficient and being effective. What’s the difference? Being efficient is doing things right. Being effective is doing the right things.
You see, we can do things right, but are they the right things to do?
As a society we’re extremely efficient. We have smart phones that can connect us to the world, and we have laptops so we can take our computers wherever we go. We’ve become efficient, but are we effective? With all these efficiencies our families are falling apart, marriages are eroding, and our kids are running amuck.
A man came running into his doctor’s office saying, “Quick, give me what you’ve got for chronic hiccups.” The doctor said, “You want the best thing?” And the guy says, “Yeah.” The doctor said, “You want it now?” and the guy says, “Yeah.” And so the doctor hits the guy as hard as he can.
The guy staggers, coughs and gives the doctor and incredulous look. And the doctor said, “How’s that?” and the guy said, “What did you do that for?” And the doctor said, “You wanted the best thing for chronic hiccups. So, are you hiccupping any more?” and the guys replied, “No, but my wife waiting in the car still is.”
The doctor was efficient, but not effective.
What we have to do is re-evaluate life, or could I say “re-value” life. What we may have thought as being valuable, may not be as important as we thought, in fact, it might be empty.
John Wesley said, “I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”
What that means is that if I have to cheat and lie get what I want, then what is it costing me when eternity rolls around?
If we don’t “re-value” life as God sees it, then a lot of that which we do will be worthless, and that which is worth more we’ll miss.
Much of Jesus’ life happened in the in-between, that is, in-between Galilee and Jerusalem as he stopped and spoke and healed the people of their diseases. Like the woman of Samaria: Some might call a chance meeting, but it was God ordained and Jesus seized the moment and changed that woman’s life forever, John 4.
On the way to a Pharisee’s house to heal his daughter, a woman who had an ever-flowing issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was immediately healed, Luke 8:40-48.
Jesus’ goal was to get to this Pharisee’s house, but God had an additional plan along the way. Notice Jesus didn’t say, “Hey, I’m on a mission, make an appointment.” Jesus realized that the Father had a purpose in the in-between.
If we don’t live our lives in the in-between there are two potential outcomes.
1. We Could Miss What God’s Doing
What we need to realize is that it may not be God’s purpose that we reach our goals. Maybe God sent us down this path because on this path is where life and God’s purpose are taking place.
God had been moving in a man’s life for two years to make a move to a particular city. The reason was because the type of people he was hanging around with kept messing up his marriage. Finally he moved to a new city because a very lucrative job opened up.
Six weeks later the job ended. Now he was in a new city with no job and no prospects. He came into the pastor’s office mad and discouraged saying, “I came here because God opened up this new job and now where’s God. I don’t even have a job.”
The pastor asked him how long God had been talking to him about moving, and he admitted it had been two years but he had been dragging his feet. And so the pastor said, “Let’s see, God wanted you to come two years ago, but you didn’t. So a job opens up and you came. Don’t you see; God was doing through the job opening what you were refusing to do?”
The man’s goal was his job, but God’s purpose was his life and family. It’s God’s purpose we should be focusing on, not our goals, and so we have to “re-value.” We can always get new goals, but we only have one life to live. Therefore it’s important for us to hear what God is saying.
“Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV)?
Have you ever been rushing around trying to get something done, when all of a sudden you get an urge to talk to someone, which may be God whispering in your ear, “Be a friend, be My voice, be My hands and feet.”
Now, we’re all in a hurry to get somewhere or to get something done, but God has a purpose for us, and while our goal may be one thing, God’s purpose is in the in-between. Maybe it’s telling someone God loves them by you loving them enough to care. Remember, people don’t care how much you know; rather they just want to know that you care.
So we need to be careful, because what we think is our goal, may not be our goal, rather its God using our goal to accomplish His purpose in-between. Life happens in the in-between, and we can miss what God is doing if we don’t live for these in-between moments.
The second potential outcome is…
2. We Can Negate What God’s Doing
When we’re all about making a good impression we can negate what God is trying to do in the home. We treat our children like little darlings in public, but yell at them in private. Or we treat our spouses like gold when we’re at church, but when we get home we ignore or berate them.
You might call it image management. While trying to look and sound like Christians we miss God’s purposes in the in-between.
[Play acting: on phone praising God with another Christian all the while making threatening faces and gestures to the kids]
We can negate what God does on Sunday by the way we live in-between Sundays. If we have a sucky attitude, yes sucky is a theological term, but if we have sucky attitude during the week, then we’re negating what God is doing in our time together at church.
We can kill what God is doing if we are not living for those moments in the in-between.
We can see this in the mission outreach of Paul and Barnabas.
“Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not shared in their work.” (Acts 15:37-38 NLT)
Paul’s goal was to go and reinforce and encourage the churches that were established on their first missionary journey, and to move forward in evangelism and missionary work. But Paul was more interested in the goal. Why take Mark, he just caused confusion and more work for them the first time.
But this was an in-between moment. Unfortunately it caused a split between Paul and Barnabas with Barnabas taking Mark and Paul taking Silas, each going their own separate ways. But because Barnabas was living life in the in-between, Mark became a valued member of Paul’s team later on. In his last letter to Timothy, Paul not only requested for Luke to join him, but also for Mark as well.
So we need to be careful and not miss or negate what God is doing in the in-betweens.
Let’s take a moment and look at what happens when we live our lives in the in-between.
Living in the In-Between
1. Can Change Our Lives
The Apostle Paul was on his way to Damascus to put the Christians who lived there in chains and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. That was his goal, but on the way, in the in-between, God met him and changed his life.
“About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.” (Acts 26:13a NIV)
It was when Paul was on his way that Jesus met him and changed the course of his life.
2. Can Heal Our Lives?
A lot of healing happens when we follow God’s path and purpose.
When we’re living life in the in-between, we can have our lives changed and healed. This is what happened to ten lepers. Jesus healed them, but they didn’t immediately see the physical manifestation of it, so Jesus tells them to go to the priests, who were the only ones who could pronounce them cleansed.
Now look what it says,
“When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed.” (Luke 17:14 NIV)??
But only one came back to give God the glory. The other nine didn’t realize what God wanted to do in the healing. Their goal was the physical healing, but God’s purpose was for them to be spiritually healed, and so they missed and negated what God wanted to do.
To the one that came back, Jesus said, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19)
Let me give you three challenges for living in the in-between.
Three Challenges for Living in the In-Between
1. Wherever You Are, Be There
I know that this sounds a little new agey, but wherever God has placed you, that’s where you need to stay, and stop trying to get out of it.
“Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.” (1 Corinthians 7:20 NKJV)
Paul was saying that if they were called while a slave, then remain in that position, but if God makes you free, then use your freedom for Him. In other words, if God has you here, then be here for God, and if God takes you someplace else, then be there for God.
I wonder how many miracles and how much of God’s purpose have I missed because I was somewhere else? I may have been there physically, but I wasn’t there mentally or spiritually.
2. Remove Hurry From Life?
While we’re all busy, we don’t have to be hurried. When we’re hurried we end up missing what God has not only for us, but also for others.
A beloved country doctor was always busy. His waiting room was always full because he would take time with each patient, seeing how they and the family were doing, and talking about their problem. He would talk with them rather than at them.
The Bible has a great remedy for hurry.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NKJV) ?
Most accidents happen because we are in a hurry? A lot of car accidents happen because somebody was in a hurry. This also happens in relationships. So we need to slow down and give a little more time for God so that we can give a little more time to those we love.
3. Balance Life Between People and Tasks?
We are all both people and task oriented, no one is one or the other. So what we have to do is to find a healthy balance between them both.
This balance between task and people can be seen in what Paul tells to the Ephesians
“Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:1-2 NKJV)
in other words, while we’re fulfilling the tasks God has set before us, not to mention our work, we are at the same time to bear other people’s burdens in love, because God knows we need each other to fulfill His calling upon our lives.
God purposes are found in the in-betweens of life.
And so as we are on this journey of faith, let’s seize those God opportunities He places in our path and start living the life God has planned by living in the in-between.
