The meaning of the title is a very old phrase from the 14th century. It means” in the intervening time” or the time in between something and something else. I recently struggled to write anything because my mind was occupied and I could not focus on anything but life itself. I was in the “meantime” or the time between. You live your life in that space. You have experienced one thing and you are waiting for something else. You are in between the events of your lives just waiting. You can begin to view this as wasted time or unproductive time, but you are wrong. God uses these times in your life often to speak. You must be in a place to listen, but he is preparing you for the next thing. In his moments of intimacy with you in prayer and meditation, contemplation and prayer he speaks. He comforts, he encourages, he admonishes, and he prepares you. Any relationship needs quiet moments to catch up and to process. God wants to spend time with you! He wants to hold you in his arms and reassure you about whatever is causing you to struggle and doubt. It is often in the meantime when you think nothing is happening.
Satan wants to rob you of this time! He wants it to be a time of doubt and
struggle. In the quiet, you can hear the
voices and feel the emotions. It is a
fertile time for your doubts to take root and to despair. It is a fertile time for despair to take
root. Any good that this time can
produce can be prohibited or erased.
Satan does not want you to experience the intimacy of this time. He wants to drive a wedge between you and
your creator. He will do anything in his
power to steal the potential of these times.
He does not want increased intimacy between you and your creator. It threatens his schemes. The only answer is to snuggle in and relax
with Him and begin to prepare for whatever is on the other side of this lull in
the action. Pay attention to the cues that
are occurring. If you don’t quiet down
and listen you may miss them.
I grew up in farm country in central Indiana. I had the chance to watch the cycle of corn
that grew all around me. In the winter,
when the fields were fallow it would have been a mistake to assume that they
were not doing anything productive. The
farmers knew that the soil needed a periodic break to replenish the nutrients. There would be the danger of stripping the
soil and making it less productive or not productive at all if it were not allowed
to rest. There were seasons that a
farmer might plant nothing in a field and let it remain fallow. You too need seasons of rest to replenish your
resources. Trust the God of the journey
to guide you in the process. Don’t
struggle and miss the benefits of the season.
You will return stronger than ever ready to do “every good work”(Hebrews
13:211-23) if you allow Him to lead!
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