Embrace Your AlmostSample

The Divine Middle Ground

I just want you to understand how miraculous your very existence is. I hope that you cherish it. I hope that you go after life with reckless abandon. I hope that you don’t give up and that you dare to be so dang persistent it hurts.

And in the meantime, in the tension between where you are and where you hope to be, continue to water the soil of your dreams and hold on to the hope that at the right time they will sprout, grow, and flourish . . . even if that process or timeline looks entirely different than you thought it would.

If our dreams are truly God-given, we can’t mess them up. We’re just not powerful enough. In fact, nothing is powerful enough to mess up His plan for our lives.

As we tend to the life in front of us and take steps toward what’s next for us, we must anticipate pain and disappointment so we can find the strength and determination—the ambition—to grow in the middle of the unknowns and almosts.

If your dreams have been delayed, painfully disrupted, or even royally destroyed, how will you lean into that refining?

If you’re dealing with unmet expectations, unachieved goals, or paralyzing unknowns, how will you remain faithful in the divine middle ground?

In a world that says we should want to have it all, God is in the business of transforming us into the strong, world-changing people He created us to be, even though that’s often through hard things. In fact, some of our hardest experiences can become invitations to trust God and grow in a way we might otherwise have missed, had we still been under the illusion that if we just planned enough or did enough, we would maintain full control.

When we live with intention during the almosts and in-betweens, one day we’ll be able to look back and say, “That was hard. But ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ And I’m thankful it made me who I am today.”

God, help me to pray the difficult prayers. I want to lean into Your refining, even if it’s painful. I want to grow, to be transformed, to become more like Christ. Amen.

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more about Embrace Your Almost by Jordan Lee Dooley here.