The In-Between Place: A 7-Day Reading Plan With Kat ArmstrongSýnishorn

Each Step of Your Journey Has Purpose

Have you ever felt frozen in time, as though everyone else seems to be moving ahead at Mach speed, but you’ve crashed into a wall? A sharp turn caused you to collide with the concrete, yet the rest of the crowd somehow speeds through the detours like expert navigators. Sound familiar?

If so, the feeling is mutual. In fact, I think it's universal. I polled my friends via text message to ask if anyone else had experienced feeling stuck. Did they feel like there was no way out of their current situations? Did they feel like it didn’t make one ounce of sense how some aspects of their family, work, or church lives were unfolding? 

Every single one of them said, “yes.”

Turns out, everyone in my life feels stuck, at least in some form or fashion. Most of my friends expressed the type of hopelessness that shadows dead-end jobs, relationships, or ministry opportunities. 

Every single person who confided in me asked, “Is there something wrong with me?” They seemed to wonder if being hard-pressed was evidence that they were defective. They described themselves in terms like: 

”dumb,”

”insignificant,"

”lost,”

”beyond help,”

and “a train wreck out of options and prospects.”

Whoosh.

This is where my tendency to challenge comes into play. I’ve got to push back on these assumptions. Being stuck is normal. Why? Because you are not a robot. You are a human. Part of being human is living through unwanted and unexpected changes, wading through confusion, and persevering through seasons we wish were much shorter. 

While my group of friends expressed concerns that their in-between places corresponded with their deficiencies—a lie I wholeheartedly rejected—another pattern emerged. The whole lot of us testified to supernatural experiences with God that took place in the midst of testing times.

Like it or not, God reserves some of our most meaningful, memorable, and life-changing moments for our in-between places. In these spots—the ones that feel so tight, the ones where we feel most pinned down or tied up— God invites us into a sacred space. There, he holds our attention and our hands. There is God-redeemed purpose in every part of your story; God is working all things for your good. 

Prayer:

Father, help me remember that every step of my journey has purpose. Help me to hope in your plans for my life. You have my attention, Lord, and I want to hold your hand through this in-between place in my life. Amen.