I don’t think it has fully sunken in yet that I’m writing to you from Gainesville, Georgia. I’m sitting here in my screened in back porch of our little brick house. It’s 80 degrees, humid and sunny. Inside, I can hear Avery, a half German-Shepherd half Corgi mix, and Sirius, a black kitten who hasn’t yet learned to be anti-social. On my left I can see a blue hydrangea bush and fire pit, and on my right is my plate from breakfast, full of remnants of honey.
Frankly, it’s an ordinary Georgia morning.
But Georgia? Did I really move to Georgia? You’d think it would be well-engrained in my brain that this is, in fact, real, considering I packed 17 million boxes, stubbed my toe 40 million times, drove halfway across the country, changed my car insurance, and am not surrounded by Canadian geese or Eagles fans right now. But it hasn’t sunk in yet.
I feel a little bit like I’m in No Man’s Land – caught in between two realities. I don’t live in my old life anymore, but my new one really doesn’t start until July first when I begin in the office. Right now, life is simple Georgia mornings, lots of unpacking, and lots of support raising.
I’m going to pause right here to let you know that Adventures has graciously allowed me another week to find more monthly financial partners in order to determine my starting salary. I’ll continue raising until I get to 100% regardless, but on Wednesday we’ll determine my starting level. If you’re able to partner financially at all (one time or especially on a monthly basis, you can click “DONATE“ on the left hand side of this page to set it up. Since it takes a few days to process, please let me know if you do so. If you’re not ready for that, but would like to be a part of the GoFundMe set up by my sweet friend Brittany to cover the cost of my move, you can do so here. It’s such a balance, feeling an incredible sense of urgency, but knowing that Jesus promises to provide for us. Pray that I continue to trust that He will!
But isn’t that just it?
I know that I will be starting in the office soon. I know I will have a job that is intense, incredible, fun, and meaningful. I know I will get to be a part of the story God is writing all around the world. I know He will provide financially. I know He is at work. But right now I’m not in Cambodia yet. I’m not in Costa Rica. I’m not at Training Camp or behind a camera or typing away with a development campaign. I’m eating honey on the back porch. I’m in No Man’s Land.
How do we live when we’re in No Man’s Land? How do we live in times of transition or change, times of waiting for Him to provide, to heal, to do what He promises? How do we live in the “already, but not yet?”
Daniel Dunlap says, “Already, but not yet describes the tension between the benefits of redemption already experienced in this life and those benefits which await us.”
We live in a world full of far more difficult things than back porches and honey. We live in a world full of famine and war, injustice and slavery, cancer and Covid, division and strife, and a host of other things that scream that things are “not yet.”
We long for the day “when everything sad will be made untrue,” to quote Tolkien.
It’s so easy to focus on the “not yet”-ness of this world. It’s so easy to keep our eyes on what we lack, where we need the miracle, how we need Him to show up so that we don’t land flat on our face… all of it. Our eyes are naturally drawn to these things, and “not yet” becomes our default.
We forget that there is an “already.”
“Already” is a celebration. He has already redeemed us. He has already provided for us. It is a story of radical hope and overcoming the seemingly impossible. It’s a story that’s sun-drenched and full of life. As we look back in life, we can see the details knit together to become beautiful, and we can celebrate even the hardest moments as we recount His faithfulness.
But the saying is not just “already.”
It’s also not just “not yet.”
It’s both. It’s tension. It’s No Man’s Land.
How do we live in that tension? How do we live in the ordinary minutes of today? How do we acknowledge that the story of God is all wrapped up into one, with pauses and rests, conflict and tension, hope and resolution?
At the risk of sounding trite, I say we simply focus on “today.” Or to continue with the story metaphor, this is just one chapter, one page. If we spend too much time looking back or forward, or to the right or to the left, we lose sight that our Shepherd is with us, guiding us in these precious moments. Some are excruciating. Others involve sunshine and honey. But He’s with us in the tension. He’s with us in No Man’s Land.
Perhaps it’s less about looking back or moving forward and more about how our Shepherd is guiding us today, AND who He is creating us to be. In the “already but not yet,” in the tension, perhaps we can identify with the words of Hannah Hurnard as He makes us took more like Him:
“The Shepherd laughed too. “I love doing preposterous things,” he replied. “Why, I don’t know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection. If there’s one thing which I should enjoy doing at this moment it is turning a jellyfish into a mountain goat. That is my special work,” He added with the light of great joy in His face. “Transforming things – to take Much-Afraid, for instance, and to transform her into-” He broke off and then went on laughingly. “Well, we shall see later on what she finds herself transformed info.”
If you’re in a season of tension, too, of No Man’s Land and “already but not yet,” let’s focus on who He is making us to be today. Because every page in every chapter in every book has a purpose, and only later will we see what we are being transformed into.
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If you’d like to be a part of the “preposterous thing” Jesus is up to in my life, scroll on back up to the blue text above!
