Welcome to the In-Between Time...Its Where We Will Do Most of Our Living

I get really tired of folks suggesting they know a whole lot about God.  And all the answers to life’s questions…the solutions to life’s problems. 

 Part of my paycheck depends on me standing in front of no small number of people on Sunday mornings and talking about the Christian view of God, and the Christian way of living in this world.  I try hard not to sound like too much of an authority on those subjects…because I am not.

 A couple quotes that keep from getting too full of myself in the knowing-all-the-answers-about-life-and-about-God areas are these:

~”My formula for living is quite simple.  I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night.  In-between, I occupy myself as best I can.”   -Cary Grant

 ~”It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in-between.”        -Diane Ackerman

So that is to say: In between birth and death we would do well to stick with things we can actually know, rather than speculate too much on the things (or beings) we cannot actually know.

 

 

Welcome to the in-between time…its where we will do most of our living.

In-Between:
Time is too slow for those who wait.
In-Between:
Time is too swift for those who fear.
In-Between:
Time is too long for those who grieve.
In-Between:
Time is too short for those who rejoice.

 In-Between…is one of the most gnarly, dark places in life because you aren’t fully here, and you aren’t fully there.

 The good news is that during the In-Between times:
-There is time to leave behind judging others.
-There is time to leave behind an emphasis on differences.
-There is time to leave behind the darkness.
-There is time to leave behind words that pollute.
-There is time to leave behind discontent.
-There is time to leave behind anger.
-There is time to leave behind pessimism.
-There is time to leave behind complaining.
-There is time to leave behind negatives.
-There is time to leave behind hostility.
-There is time to leave behind bitterness.
-There is time to leave behind too much self-concern.

-There is time to leave behind lies.
-There is time to leave behind the shadows of sorrow.

 But perhaps deep within the in-between times we can more clearly hear the Creative Force whispering to us:
I am not in some far-off place
I am not waiting for you to seek me enough…to need me enough…or to get desperate enough
I am in you, and you are in me…and that is enough.

 That’s about all I really think I know about God…and life…and maybe even that is too much for me to know fully.