Life in the Middle…
As Nietzsche’s Madman put it, God is dead and we have killed him. So what happens now?
‘Holy Saturday, the day most of us live most our lives — somewhere between “Dear God” and “Amen”’ — Pete Grieg
We live in-between. In the gap. The gap in-between who we are and who we are becoming. The gap in-between where we have been and where we are going. The gap in-between death and new life. The gap in-between what was and what will be. Learning to live in the gap is perhaps one of the most important things in life. That gap is the present…
I, like most of us I think, spend most of my time in the past or in the future. I have this horrible tendency to hustle life along. Desperate to get to the next thing. Never letting anything that is, simply be. Alternatively, I spend my time reliving the past. What might have been? What could have been? What should have been? Running scenarios with hypothetical solutions to problems past. While I have never found any peace or freedom in either of these approaches, it is not for lack of trying. This leaves us with the reality of Saturday, we only have here and now.
‘The big thing is… that we do not waste our time dreaming about days that are not to be ours.’ — Tozer
Saturday is a moment of peace. Of stillness. However, that seems to come with uncertainty. I have had times beautiful peace and stillness in the last few years; the problem is, they always come at a time when I do not know what is next. It would be unfair to say I completely wasted them. However, because of a lack of faith or trust or a crippling need to have a plan, I was unable to let them be all they could be. I was living in what had just been and what may be to come whilst neglecting (and often resenting) the present moment.
‘The opposite of faith isn’t doubt; it’s certainty and control.’ — John Mark Comer
What we get in Saturday is stillness and uncertainty, peace and unknowing. Is life not learning to hold those two things together? When we are left reeling from the events of yesterday and nervously expecting the things of tomorrow, we must learn to be present. Just to be here. As if nothing else exists but here and now. Letting it be what it is.
‘Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.’ — William Congreve
We do not know what tomorrow may bring. New life or more waiting could be around the corner. Is it not better, then, to embrace today? To learn to thrive in the quiet uncertainty that comes in our lives. Giving us time to reflect and dream but above all, time to be still. Time to be thankful. Time to be here. Throughout the Bible, circumstance and surrounding do not dictate peace. Whether in the middle of a storm or on Easter Saturday we are shown moments of stillness and calm regardless of what is happening outside ourselves.
‘[Saturday] is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude.’ — Eugene Peterson
So, today, let the silence of Saturday do its work on you. Be here. Be present with yourself and your world. Let the quiet bring things to the surface that have been buried by busy. Let your uncertainty have its space. Let your doubts have a voice. Yet, in it all, let peace find a way.
Easter Saturday 2019
