Clay in the Hands

Have you ever found yourself in limbo.  Maybe it was between jobs or between relationships.  Or maybe you have found yourself in difficult times financially.

Maybe you are in the middle of something right now.

Last week I finished a book by Jeff Manion entitled, The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions.  It has kept me thinking for quite some time now.

In the book, Manion illustrates his points by pointing to the people of Israel and their journey through the wilderness.  They had been enslaved in Egypt for years and had been crying out to God to set them free.  So God used Moses to lead them out of that captivity and across the desert to the land of Canaan.  Unfortunately, because of the people’s lack of trust, this journey took 40 years.  That is a long time to spend in the land between!

Manion uses their story to point out that all of us experience periods of being in the land between.  But it is in this land between that God can use the experience to grow our faith.  Unfortunately, this same land between can drive us away from God as well.  God’s design is to allow us to choose how we will come out on the other side of this land between.

We can choose to trust God and believe that God will walk with us every step of the way or we can become bitter that we are having to go through trials.  The choice is up to us.  Coming from someone who has been in the land between before and in even as I write this am there again, it is not an easy choice to make.  There are days when we don’t want to be here.  There are days that it would be easy to complain and become angry with God.  But the answer is to trust.

As long as we know that God is walking with us and that there is a plan for us, then choosing to trust God comes easier.

If today, you find yourself in that land between, remember, this time can make you stronger in your faith or it can drive you away from God – it is your choice.