Originally, this blog began when I was between jobs, between living accommodations and between relational statuses. (how does one pluralize "status"?) All was transition and in between seemed like the most appropriate name for my new blog. What I realized quite quickly is that we're always in between. I think I already knew this, but I re-learned it as I moved from dating to engaged to married; from a church job to the Regent job; from a temporary apartment to my brother & sister-in-law's place to Gordon & my condo. With all of these three major transitions "finished" I still found myself in between.
This past month has had a lot of that "in between-ness" to it as well. Time off that also had a list of things I hoped to accomplish (and mostly didn't). Waiting with my in-laws for visas that seemingly wouldn't come...three weeks of sitting on packed suitcases. They definitely were living in the in between. (The visas did come and they are off on grand adventure!) I went to Calgary for a week and visited family and friends there and found that this place I come from still has a place for me even though I don't feel so much that I belong there anymore. Regent life has resumed and I find myself walking the line between student and staff, fitting into neither category very neatly. I'm in between. New students have arrived and there is this strange sense of unfamiliarity and yet the knowledge that, within a very short time, they will be very much a part of things, offering us gifts of themselves that we've yet to discover. And with the return to the Regent community there are all sorts of joys and sorrows that are poignant reminders that in a cosmic sense we are living in the in between, the kingdom has already come, but not yet in full. We are rejoicing over the birth of twin girls to our dear friends Ben & Nickaela. We are gently welcoming back two faculty members who, last fall, were not able to work due to a stroke and a severe depression. But we are also reeling at the news of a cancer diagnosis given to an emeritus faculty member who just spent the summer with us and to the tragic death of a couple's baby boy the week before his due date. I cannot tell you how much this last item has shaken us. God's hand is hard to trace here, except in the support that I have seen their community fill in to give them.
We are in between great joy and deep distress.
We are in between glimpses of a kingdom and signs of the brokenness of a fallen creation.
For now, it would seem that in between is where we live.
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2 comments:
In bewteen allows us to reflect on and learn from the past and to anticipate the future, while at the same time living the present to the fullest. If one ever stops living in between, watch out; you're about to grow moss, probably of a toxic variety.
CRT
Marcus Borg, in his fascinating book The Heart of Christianity, discusses the Celtic idea of thin places being those places between this world and the next where we encounter the divine.
As for me, my wanderings have left me feeling exiled and alone, and very in between. To quote another favorite author, "You just go on."
As much as the journey might be difficult, and as much pain as you find along the path, there is joy too; the absolute joy in a seed pushing its way out of darkness into light on my balcony garden, the joy of a sunset and a waggy-tailed dog, the joy of a friend well-met, the joy of paddling in a kayak further than ever around an island in a blue, blue sea.
Courage, and much love...
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