Have you ever gone through a particularly long, dry season, where you are just coasting?  You are well, but you can say with all honesty that you’re not exactly stellar, but not terrible either.  You’re “fine.”

 

We’re always looking for that mountain top high – being in love, seeing our efforts and dedication pay off at work, watching our families grow… We love feeling that the wind is at our backs, and that God’s favor is in all that we touch. 

 

The converse to this, is when we are walking in the valley for a bit.  We are in a season of loss—a marriage, a loved one, our livelihood.   Maybe we are battling for our health, a relationship, or we are worried for someone we love that is experiencing hardship.  

 

We all know what each of these feels like.  

 

But what about the in-between?  What about those seasons where you are neither high nor low?  Perhaps you are simply on autopilot.  Life is predictable, routine, safe. 

 

I find myself here a lot.  I push out from the behind the curtain of mediocrity and wonder if this is just all there is.  I admonish myself for not seeking new relationships or adventures, for not spreading my wings and flying over new territories.  I exchange my faith for apathy.

 

I wonder if you can relate.

 

The problem is that too much of our lives are spent here.  We get comfy with our lot.  We somehow convince ourselves that this is all we should expect, that our best days are behind us, that we are on the clearance rack and no longer a hot commodity.  

 

To define it best, we stop believing for more. 

 

How do we believe again?  How do we reactivate our faith so that we can see God’s plan for us has not expired?  How do we pick up our heads and notice that we are at the base of a new mountain, and not dragging the floor of mediocrity?

 

I have come to understand that even in our dry seasons, God is still at work.  He has taught me to be still.  He has taught me to be patient.  He has taught me to understand that no matter how much I want to insert myself in the plan, if it’s not His doing, it will never work. 

 

He has taught me that faith isn’t just found in the high places or the desperate places – but it is in the in-between that he readies us for both. It’s in the in-between where He does His best work.

 

We spend too much time looking in our rearview mirrors.  It’s too painful sometimes to think that we will never know again our used-to-be’s.  But this is the very point – God is always restoring us in ways we don’t realize.  He takes us from mountain top to mountain top, even when we don’t recognize that the terrain looks different, because it’s supposed to be. 

 

This is what keeps me buoyed in still waters.  I know that God is not done with my story yet.  There are still hills to climb.  There are still miraculous and serendipitous meetings, conversations, healings, restorations, and relationships ahead for me.  He knows the plans, and just because they haven’t been revealed to me yet, I am expectant that they will be.

 

God doesn’t want us to stop believing for more.  He wants us to reactivate our expectations.  He doesn’t want us to coast, he wants us to grab the paddles and row in the current of His love for us.  

 

What we believe for, may take a while to come.  But if we stop believing – if we resign ourselves to apathy – that is surely all we will ever know.

 

No matter where you are on your journey, never stop believing that God is at work.  Don’t discount what He is teaching you in the in-between, and what it is preparing you for.  Be expectant.  

 

Keep rowing, girl.  New mountains are just ahead of you.

 

Serendipity awaits. 

 

 Mary Bryant is the author of "When He Walks Away… Hearing God When Your Husband Leaves Your Marriage,” a 5-Star Rated book available on Amazon