The Land Between

Friday we attended the Global Leadership Summit hosted by the Willow Creek Association. There were a number of passion-provoking ideas thrown around, but one of the most timely sermons I heard was "The Land Between" by Jeff Manion.

He's actually written a whole book by that same title, but the life stage he described fits so many of us so well. In summary, you find yourself in the land between when you've left where you've been, you're on your way to where you're going, but you aren't there yet.

For Lauren and I, that's exactly where we are. We're leaving the identity we found at Mountain and we are on our way someday to planting a church, but there's this 4 years in between that have to stand for something. We're not who we've been anymore, and we're not yet who we are becoming.

You'll find yourself here if you've had kids and in one of those particularly rebellious days, you wonder who this person is that you've created and why they aren't yet who you've been praying they will be. You are in the land between if you've just made big headway in your workplace, you know another promotion is right around the corner, but for now, you're stuck.

What I, and all of us, in the land between need to understand is that the land between is fertile ground for growing into the people we need to be or losing everything entirely. Just as a good communicator needs to learn to transition well between each point, so we have to learn to work hard in life's transitions to stay the course. While the temptation is for us to become discouraged and emotionally burnt out and even quit when we are in the land between, it's in these times that God can bring about the greatest spiritual transformation in us. These transitional slumps can be the pinnacle of our opportunity to let God develop further into the masterpieces he designed us to be.

So are you in the land between? If you aren't sure, definitely check out the book. I know Lauren and I will. If you aren't there, trust me that your time will come again and your best bet to surviving the land between is to prepare yourself now. For those of you like us who are in the land between, I pray that God will reveal himself to you in a powerful and loud way. Just as Jesus entered the wilderness for 40 days and faced every temptation and trial common to humanity, I pray that you will emerge from the land between victorious, ready to live the abundant life that God offers to each of us!