Seasonally, we’re in a bizarre state where technically the season we’re in is called Spring… and yet the trees and ground look dull and dead. The bright green patches of grass have not yet taken over the hills or yards and the snow you thought was maybe actually gone, continues to reappear in sudden flurries.
And so, we’re left in seasonal limbo which usually feels like looping through an eternal debate about whether it’s time for that slightly lighter jacket yet or if we really DO still need mittens.
Apart from giving us a case of weather-based whiplash, this time of “Spring” also reflects the Church Season we’re in…
We’re slowly moving through the season formally known as Lent, which ultimately leads us to reveling in awe at the resurrection of Christ!
And yet, before we get there, here we are with more in-betweens.
Waiting… in varying degrees of patience with various sets of needs.
But as we wait for Leftover Winter to melt away and for Real Spring to warm up the earth, releasing new growth, we get to wait with confidence. Winter never truly lasts forever. Does it feel like it does at times?! One hundred and twenty five percent, yes.
No matter how real those feelings may be and no matter how impossible a full thaw feels, the reality remains: Spring and Summer are just around the corner.
In the same way, the dull, dead-feeling parts of our lives are also not forever realities.
The discouragement of too-much-waiting will not last forever either.
Sometimes when I’m stuck in times of waiting (and I’m not too busy complaining, which, honestly does devour a lot of my time) I think back to two particular times of waiting in Scripture and I feel instantly better.
- The time that stretched out between the time of Malachi and the arrival of John the Baptist and Jesus! It was approximately FOUR HUNDRED YEARS with NO prophetic voices sharing the heart of God to the people of Israel and Judah.
Four. Hundred. Years.
No new word from God.
Of course, they had already been given decrees and laws from God… He had revealed his heart through past prophets. But there were no new prophetic voices and it was the job of the faithful, not to forget what they had learned and been taught.
2. The days between the death of Jesus and his resurrection.
The disciples saw their beloved Lord and friend killed and the darkness of those days must have been beyond unbearable. The Spirit of God had not yet been released to them and they had watched the only begotten Son of God die and be buried.
I cannot imagine how empty and truly hopeless those days must have been.
While we have struggles that would have been entirely unimaginable for the people of these two historical periods of time, our context places us in the post-resurrection reality! And this is something we must remind ourselves of and remind one another of! …not insensitively… but with the purpose of building one another up!
As mundane and awful as it can be, waiting is probably one of the most consistent parts of the human life. And as people who believe in Jesus and the fact that he was, indeed, raised from the dead, we are people who also know about the new life that was released when Jesus left the grave behind.
And so, like a bit of a broken record, we remind ourselves of the in-betweens and the fact that with God, they will lead us into places of further healing, wholeness and life.
And that they will not last forever.
I’ve decided to try and conquer the blah weather days (like today) by using them as physical reminders of the in-between. As reminders that what looks like death and barrenness, is actually the exact place that new life will spring up out of.
Take heart Lifespring!
Bring hope into the waiting and remind your soul of the resurrection!
Grieve, mourn and lament; give thanks, praise and glory to God.
Embrace your reality as a Child of God who will face many more in-betweens, but who will never, ever need to face them alone.
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”JOHN 20:29