The Road To: In Between
The Road to: In Between
What does it mean to be, “Between” or “In Between?” Our CPC Lenten devotional theme this year, developed by A Sanctified Art, is “Everything In Between: Meeting God in the midst of extremes.”
We all experience extremes, don’t we? For example, weather extremes, or behavioral extremes, or extreme opinions, or ………. whatever. While we are not going to go into politics in this blog, perhaps we can agree that extremes divide, create tension, anxiety and sometimes hatred. So, what’s it like being “in between” extremes? Is it like a tornado where the edges are the extreme opposite of the eye of the storm? When it passes, the eye is calm, but the edges are anything but calm. Can God’s help lead us to understanding a balance between opposing ideologies - a storm? What do you pray for in such a “storm”?
Ever been “in between?” Some examples could include between jobs, between friends, between schools, between homes, between ________ (fill in the blank), often facing life decisions. Our Lenten devotional theme focuses on the “in” - the point between the extremes of the two end points or options in any situation. Is that where we (you) encounter God? Or is that where we (you) seek God’s help? What is your prayer?
When finding yourself in between, do you find yourself caught between conflicting expectations or loyalties? How has God helped you resolve this? Having personally experienced and then watched and experienced children (both as a parent and as a grandparent), adolescence is a good example of an “in between” part of life. Raging hormones, ever-changing and increasingly complex social pressures and technologies put our youth in the middle of extremes, a true storm. What would you pray for our youth today?
Grammatically, being between, or in-between, is an intermediate state. But that is so often not a place of ease - it’s a place of confusion, even anxiety. It is a space of transition. These are moments lacking clarity or boundaries. But new possibilities, new solutions, new approaches can emerge. What is your experience with positive outcomes from being “in between”?
God is in the “IN” of In Between. Do you agree that we can benefit from seeing, understanding and praying about that presence of God, that assurance, that guidance? Is this where we (you) meet God - “in between”? Where we meet God could be between intention and action, stranger and neighbor, faith and works, rest and growth, lost and found, being right or being merciful, shouting and silence, powerful and humble, acceptance and resistance, grief and hope. Is God in your “in betweens”?
In all of this I”m reminded of the Serenity Prayer, most often attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Serenity means calm or peaceful. It’s a state with the absence of anxiety and stress. Isn't this what we, as Christians, as CPC, want to offer, i.e., to spread the peace of Christ to all?
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl
Background: Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. [Wikipedia]
As we search for meaning, is God in our search? Do we doubt or question things when we find ourselves “in between”?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-8 NIV
As we close and post this on/near the day when St. Patrick is celebrated, I leave you with a couple of Irish blessings:
"May your heart be light and happy. May your smile be big and wide. And may your pockets always have a coin or two inside."
"May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand."
Praying for you,
PB
Community Presbyterian Church
32202 Del Obispo
San Juan Capistrano. CA 92675
949-493-1502
info@sjcpres.org