Learning to Embrace the In-Between
I love beginning projects. Nothing is more exciting that launching something important. I love finishing projects too. As an achiever, I live to check things off my to-do list.
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It’s that middle part I don’t like so much.
It’s true of projects. And it’s also true of life. The middle part is the hard part. The messy part. The part I wish I could avoid.
But Jeff Goins new book, The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing is a great reminder that the middle is where the important stuff happens.
This is a hard message for most of us to hear. We live in a world of instant gratification. We want what we want and we want it now.
But this is not how life works. Much of it is spent waiting:
waiting to see the doctor;
waiting to get your driver’s license renewed; or
waiting to hear if your got the job.
Let’s face it, we’re restless. We’re dissatisfied with where we are now.
This even happens when we aren’t waiting but working through the projects, relationships, and events that make up ninety percent of our daily lives.
The In-Between is a call to accept the importance waiting plays in our lives. As Jeff notes,
Maybe the ‘good stuff’ isn’t ahead of or behind us. Maybe it’s somewhere in between. Right in the midst of this moment, here and now…. Perhaps, the abundant life we’ve been seeking has little to do with big events and comes in a subtler form: embracing the pauses in between major beats.
The moments of break-through where real change happens aren’t typically instant and extraordinary. They usually happen gradually in the ordinary course of our lives.
This book is a wonderful corrective to our modern, give-it-to-me-now culture. It is a powerful reminder that we must embrace the “long game” of life, if we are to experience the love, joy, and peace we seek.
Moody, Jeff’s publisher, has agreed to give 50 copies of his new book, The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing to my readers. To get a chance at snagging one, you must take the following three actions:
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On Thursday, August 8, 2013, I will select 50 people at random. If you are one of those selected, I will notify you via email. If you don’t hear from me, you can assume you were not selected.
Question: Question: Where do you find yourself smack dab in the middle of something? What are you learning? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
