“To us, waiting is wasting. To God, waiting is working.” – Louie Giglio

In Between – What’s Next Series – Part 3

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5

I wonder what’s next for you? What are you moving on from? Do you have an idea of where you’re headed?

How do you transition from one thing – perhaps the very best event/year/moment/day, or the very worst – to the other side of it?

I’ve had high moments and hellish ones. Life just keeps moving on through it all, despite it all. It doesn’t wait for me to catch up. There has always been, and always will be 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year. I can’t change time. I can’t hold it back, speed it up, or slow it down. But I can learn to move with it.

Letting go of what has been, or at least moving with the passing of time from an event, whether it was good or bad, is a skill we spend our lives working on (or not). It’s the space in between the big moments that are hard to navigate. Even in the initial moments of tragedy and heartache, there’s stuff to do; things to plan, forms to fill out, people to call… it's the days, weeks and months after that are the hardest. Sometimes letting go can’t come quick enough, and other times we hold to old moments for dear life.

And all the while day follows night follows day follows…

The in-between time. One of the hardest, and yet, one of the most formative seasons we frequent. While we can’t wait for the next event, or wish the hard-times away, the in-between time is where we actually do our best work, or at least, have the potential too.

It’s tempting to want to speed time up, slow it down, rush through it, sleep through it, numb through it… and get to the other side. But we risk losing the lessons and stories the in-between has for us.

So, just wait. Have a seat. Take a breath. Make that a few deep breaths.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Mary’s life, and nothing at all while Jesus was between the ages of twelve and thirty. Was this her in-between? Or were there a series of them we don't know anything about? The Angel appeared to her in the dead of night, told her she would have a baby who would be the Saviour of the world, AND that she would fall pregnant without having sex… (Luke 1:26-38) and then she had to wait. Live through it ALL. Day by day, moment by moment. Grace by grace.

Louie Giglio once said: “To us, waiting is wasting. To God, waiting is working.”

It’s not a passive waiting; it's more of an active patience. Presence. You are where you are, so be there. All there. The divine is at work in the in-between, weaving his grand story through your life the way only he can, and only if we choose to be present with him in it.

If you’re in the “in-between;” if it's the day after the day you’ve waited for your whole life, or feared your whole life, well then, this is where you are. Is it painful? Is it boring? Is it “whatever?” Joyful? Normal? Crazy? Whatever it may be, wake up. Get out of bed (figuratively and physically). Make yourself a coffee (tea, juice, clean smoothie…), and breathe into this day. Don’t rush it, don’t waste it by wishing it away. Even in the in-between – the aftermath, the day after the Big Day – we have no idea what’s next… either in ten minutes or ten years. So we may as well put one foot in front of the other, and trust that more awaits us.

And more awaits tomorrow… I mean more about the topic of “What's Next” that is 😉

Go to Part 4 – Trust Is »

Written by Lizzy Milani.

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