Many years ago, in a lifetime far, far, away… That’s how my Star Wars began. When we look back over our lives, and it seems like we’ve lived multiple “lifetimes?” – our childhood life, our stupid years life (ages 17-22), and so on.
My life feels like lifetimes
Perhaps it’s just me, but my life was so different when I was young, compared to my life now. One of my “lifetimes” was when I spent many wonderful years playing bass and six-string guitar in gospel groups. That “lifetime” is extra beautiful since that is how I met my wife.
During that time, I used to write gospel songs, and one that I wrote was “Caught in the in-betweens.” A line of the song goes like this:
Title: Stuck in the In-Betweens
Now there’s a pain that’s deep within,
and God’s light just cannot be seen.
You’re tossed and you’re turned,
but you never quite learn
that you’re caught in the in-betweens.
(c) 1978, Gary W. Moore
Stuck in the In-Betweens
There are times in our lives when it is easy to get in a rut or become desensitized to the Holy Spirit or to insulate ourselves and run from circumstances or run from the call of God. I call this “stuck in the in-betweens.”
This condition is complacency. The next step on that journey is apathy. Apathy is the old-man’s (Romans 6:6) coping mechanism. It is an approach that human nature uses to keep us caught between the healing of God and the will of self.
Our human intent is to keep us “caught in the in-betweens.” We try to live without care. That’s not fulfilling and let’s face it; it’s not how Jesus called us to live. Apathy is spiritually dangerous. We find a reference to this condition in the book of Isaiah, which says:
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught…”
Isaiah 29:13
God’s rescue plan
So how do we open our scars and allow God’s healing salve into the wounds that put us into this do-not-care condition? God’s tool of choice is praise:
Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
Psalms 68:4-5
lift a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the Lord;
exult before him!
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
God cares. He is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. Our God cares and He cares for us, but we must open ourselves up to God for His healing to enter us, and for our praise to go to Him. Praise is the best way for us to allow the Holy Spirit of God in our lives and for Him to pour oil on our injuries, just as the good Samaritan did in Christ’s parable (Luke 10:25-37).
God’s rescue plan is for us to open our mouths, thank God, and sing to Him even if we don’t feel like it or know what to say or sing. The point is to thank God, have faith in God, and declare our love of God aloud to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. We must be determined to find our joy and purpose in Him. As the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write in Ephesians 5:19, “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,..“
Amen
Photo by Soroush Karimi on Unsplash
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