Lent Day 8 – The Space In-Between

I often wonder what Saturday was like. Not just any Saturday, but the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. For those who went all in with Jesus it must have been pure hell. Their dreams, hopes and desires just got crucified, literally. I can only imagine that the despair was suffocating, the confusion overwhelming and the pain excruciating. What they thought was real was no longer real. What they thought was true was suddenly untrue. A dark world was all that was left. This is not to mention that they must have been terrified by being identified as a threat to the state, since their leader was executed as an infidel. There was no place for safety and comfort. To add to this hellish Saturday, it was the Sabbath. There was no activities to distract, no work to escape into. Busyness was not accessible. The space in between Friday and Sunday must have been an indescribable no-man’s-land.

The God-narrative is full of spaces in between. The space between the promise of a nation and people to Abraham and the actual formation of that nation and people. The space in between Moses exiling himself in the desert for 40 years and his return to lead the Hebrew liberation movement. Then there was another 40 year space in between leaving the oppression and slavery of Egypt and the occupation of the Promised Land. The space in between David being called to be a king and actually becoming king. The space between the Israelites being exiled into Babylon and the actual return back to their home. The space between the promise of a Messiah and the actual birth of the Messiah. I could go on and on. The point being that there is a LOT of space in between in the narrative of God. This helps me because there is a lot of space in between in my life. There is a lot of space and time spent in a no-man’s-land. It’s a very hard place to be. I’m not patient with the space in-between. I’m miserable with the time between an injury and the healing. I get anxious with the space between a request and an answer. The space in-between is not a pleasant experience. It is a place of discomfort and uncertainty. It is a place of waiting. Yet, it is where much of life is spent.

Once again, I return to Jesus intentionally entering into the space in-between. We are not given any details about the specifics of what actually happened in the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. We just know he didn’t eat food. But, what actually happened in the details of the daily remains a mystery, hidden from the reader of the story. The specifics of these experiences are not left out by accident. They are also not left out of the narrative because they are inconsequential. They are left out because God does some of His best work in hidden and secret places of the soul. He works beneath the surface. Just because a farmer doesn’t see a sprout, doesn’t mean that a seed isn’t doing its most important work of establishing roots. It just can’t be seen. God works away from the spin cycles of the press or interpretations of intellectuals. He works in the depth. David, in his own space in-between gives us a glimpse as he is wrestling his own hurting soul. Psalm 42 says that, “deep calls to deep.” The hidden and secret places of in-between are the essential soils of ultimate growth and flourishing.

There are precious treasures to be discovered in the space in-between if we have faith to search for them. There is a strengthening of trust as we build expectancy. There is a growth of resiliency and resolve in the waiting. There is loving companionship for the journey. There is growing compassion for those around us. There are moments to eat, drink and be merry. There are moments to mourn and be with. There is life in the space in-between. And, as all great men and women of faith who have gone before us, the space in-between prepares us for the space we occupy when we arrive. So today, I will embrace the space in-between my fears and hopes, my dreams and my realizations, my sorrows and my joys, my waiting and my doing. I will embrace my space in-between.