¹Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; ²And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; ³And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” ⁴So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 12:1–4 (NASB95)

Have you ever found yourself to be “unsettled?” Maybe it was in a position of indecision. Maybe you were in a move or launching into a new season of marriage. We all find ourselves from time to time in between where we were and where we are going. We struggle to understand the uncertainty and instability of the land between those two points.

One of the questions I seem to answer a lot these days is, “How are you settling in?” I’m kind of a “word nerd,” so against all good “Southern conventions” of just responding, “We are doing great,” I find myself responding that we are blessed and experiencing something new nearly every day. In other words, we are not yet settled. Meditating on this reality recently, I was drawn to Abraham’s experience in Genesis 12. The passage may be familiar to you but consider it once again. God told Abraham to leave his home. Home (particularly in that day) represented security, stability, and power. In Haran, he and his family were known. They had possessions. They had property. They had family. It was outlandish for anyone to leave the security of home.

These promises were not based on a place but on a Person. It was not in the ground but in the God who rules sovereignly. Furthermore, the cost Abraham was to bear would be paid upfront and amounted to a wholesale surrender by faith. Faith to leave. Faith to listen. Faith to follow. We see in just a few pages that Abraham did not do this perfectly. The human side of man struggles to release control to anyone, including God. I, for one, am encouraged that perfect faith is not the price of entry but the byproduct of entering into God’s promise.

By the way, God’s fulfillment of the promise was not fully realized by Abraham. God fulfills promises across the generations, not just in the present moment. One of our shortcomings as people is expecting God to just microwave a fulfilled promise according to our timetable. He does not. And the fact that He doesn’t do so in no way diminishes the validity or reliability of His promise. He is still God, and He is still true to His Word.

So, where are you? Are you in between?  Maybe you have heard from the Lord, but the outcome has not yet come clearly into focus. Perhaps you have shifted in your career, and the new place has not yet felt like you have arrived. Perhaps you have started a journey with Jesus, and you realize that you have a long way to go to look like Him. You are in between. I want you to know that God does some of His best work in between. It is there that you learn about yourself. It is there that you are confronted with your shortcomings and start to get a glimpse of your strengths. It is in the land in between that you learn to lean in and lean on Jesus for things that you thought you could do alone when you were back home. It is in between where you develop the patient longing for the other side.

Remember that the land in between is often the longest part of the journey. It is the most difficult. It can seem insurmountable. It can feel lonely. It can provoke anxiousness. It can wear on your soul. You cannot speed it up. All you can do is continue to move forward as you progressively traverse the land in between on your way to the promise of the other side. You are not alone.

Keep moving. It is worth it.