Unfinished People in God’s Middle Time

My long term (and all-consuming) reading & writing Japanese project has been on hold for two or three weeks now. And it really isn’t practical to think of going on for some weeks yet. Life seems to be in the fast lane – certainly the house guests are coming and going at a great rate! I have make up classes at the university and there’s English Camp to prepare.

Besides…  I feel I need to think about some things  - to reflect aloud.

I feel like I have “begun many things and seen but few accomplished.” Perhaps that is why today I remembered a poem I copied from some magazine long ago.

This is the poem:

THE MIDDLE TIME

Between the exhilaration of Beginning
And the satisfaction of Concluding
Is the Middle Time
   Of Enduring .. Changing .. Trying
   Despairing.. Continuing .. Becoming.

Jesus Christ was the Person of God’s Middle Time
Between Creation and .. accomplishment.
Through Him God said of Creation,
“Without mistake”
And of Accomplishment,
“Without doubt”

And we in our Middle Times
   Of Wondering and Waiting,
   Hurrying and Hesitating,
   Regretting and Revising –
We who have begun many things ..
And seen but few completed –
We who are becoming more .. and less –
Through the evidence of God’s Middle time
Have a stabilizing hint
   That we are not mistakes,
   That we are Irreplaceable,
   That our Being is of interest,
   And our Doing is of purpose,
   That our Being and our Doing
   Are surrounded by Amen

Jesus Christ is the Completer
   Of unfinished people
   with unfinished work
   in unfinished times.

May he keep us from sinking, from ceasing,
From wasting, from solidifying,
That we may be for Him
Experimenters, Enablers, Encouragers,
And Associates in Accomplishment

- Lorna Fowler

As this week draws to a close we find ourselves unexpectedly in a time of waiting. Suddenly we find ourselves wondering will our lives go on this way? or take a turn in an unforeseen direction?

I say unexpectedly, and yet really so much of life is full of waiting, wondering.  Truly we are “unfinished people with unfinished work in unfinished times.”

May He keep us from sinking, from ceasing, from wasting!