We live in this tension between eternity and the brevity of this temporal life. Between what is and what will be. Between living for God in a way that impacts future generations while at the same time realizing that time is short and this could be the last generation God allows to inhabit this earth. We live in this cocoon between physical birth and physical death, yet those of us who are Believers are eternal beings. Oh, the complexity of the life with Christ!

We exist in this world as “new creatures” while at the same time we feel the tug of the “old creature” pulling back like a shadow permanently attached to us, yet with a weight that tries to drag us back to the past, back to who we once were. We sense the freedom of our new justified state (forgiven and made right) in our relationship with Father God while we are still in the process of being sanctified (made holy) day by day. The dichotomy is almost too much for this human mind to grasp.

We live our daily lives in the balance too. We waiver between holiness and sinfulness on any given day. We waffle between glorifying God and self-glorification from one moment to the next. We make wise choices and selfish, evil choices within minutes of each other every single day. As the apostle Paul said, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Romans 7:18-19

I am so glad that God is infinite, because my finite mind cannot comprehend all of these opposites that go hand-in-hand in the Christian life. So for today I will fully live in the in-between: the world of spirit and flesh, temporal and eternal, for the present and future, life and death, new creature and old, holy and sinful, godly and selfish, wise and foolish.

God is in the in-between. Worship and praise is in the in-between. Growth is in the in-between. Seeking holiness is in the in-between. A pathway to purity and righteousness is in the in-between. A valley is in the in-between, and God makes a way in the in-between and leads us through the valley of desperation to the place where we will live with Him forever.