In the Middle of Things

I’m in middle age, the middle of raising kids, the middle of projects at work and at church, and in the middle of a three month devotional booklet (and, if truth be told, sometimes I only get to the middle of a daily reading.) Lately, I’ve been reflecting on being in the middle of things and frankly it’s more exciting to be at the beginning. Or, if things go well, more rewarding at the end. You have that rush of adrenalin as you start the “big project” and you have that “well done” (and phew it’s over feeling) at the end. Being in the middle can be tedious, uninspiring, plain hard work and motivationally challenging. Relationships may get tense, “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.” (as that boomer song goes). It’s in the middle when my “I” questions arise, “What am I doing here? Am I doing it right? Does anyone care what I am doing?, etc. etc.” Where’s the glory in the middle?

56 years ago, my parents were in the middle of starting an Evangelical Covenant Church in Dearborn, Michigan, sharing the Good News of the gospel in the neighborhood. Growing up I witnessed the middle of this ministry. My dad went to planning and financial meetings. My mother prepared Sunday School lessons and taught hundreds of kids Bible lessons on Flanograph Boards (I still love those flannel panels, but that’s another blog). I watched the hard work, waited for dad to come home from long meetings at night and helped my mom serve meals in the kitchen. To a kid, it wasn’t all that exciting. Still, they were faithful in the middle of things.

This past week, I attended the Annual Celebration of the Great Lakes Conference. In the middle of the business meeting, John Aho, Pastor of the Dearborn Evangelical Covenant Church gave a Good News Report on what’s going on there today. The church is still spreading the gospel in the same neighborhood, but it has changed over the years. Dearborn is home to a large Muslim community and the church is offering free English lessons in its new Friendship Center. Hometown missionaries have developed training programs to equip people from all over the country to come to Dearborn and learn how to reach out to Muslims. 56 years later, the Dearborn Church is going in directions that could have never been predicted in the middle 1950s. It’s still in the middle of God’s work.

As Christians, we believe that God knows the end of the story. Our characters, however, may only be in the middle chapters. So, we are called—in the middle—and God only knows how the story will unfold.

What are you in the middle of?