Most of life is lived in the waiting, in the meantime. For 43 years, Clay and I have held fast to marriage. We lived through mundane rhythms of life day and night, through all the phases of childhood where relationships were forged, where the Clarkson story took root, where ministry was birthed. In the meantime, between big life events, is where the treasures were found.
We all wait to see what is ahead. Will it be calm? Will it be violent? I have waited to fall in love, waited to get married, waited to get pregnant, waited to get pregnant again. Waited for 19 houses to sell when moving, waited to find another suitable place. Waited for children to be out of diapers, to learn to read, to grow up!
On and on it goes. Clay has waited through all of these seasons by my side. What does life hold? What is going to happen?
Most of life is in the “in between.” And yet, what we do in the meantime is what really defines the story of our lives. As Clay and I waited together when our hopes for our ministry were only ideas we talked about together, we worked hard to start a ministry without a paycheck for 5 years. Our first conference had only 11 people.
We talked late at night about if we would ever write books — we have now written 38. We lived through illnesses, moves, car wrecks, loneliness and rejection, out of the box children, asthmatics, family trauma, church drama.
These places are where our character was made, our story grew with integrity. Each season of learning to be faithful in hard times, of pushing through to see if God would answer prayer, learning to forgive when we didn’t feel like it, loving a child who was acting in an unlovable way.
What you choose to believe and cherish, practice and submit to, work at and believe in, happens when no one else is looking. These are the glorious days your children will remember — the joy of the meantime, the moments cherished, the memories made at bedtime, table time, birthdays, times of illness, holidays.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. What will you do in the meantime? How will you pass the days/years meaningfully while you are waiting? In the meantime, celebrate life.