the middle has been on my heart a lot lately.  In one of my favorite shows “The Gilmore Girls”, Loralie tells Luke that she is scared for them to wait too long to figure things out because she is afraid they won’t get a middle. And she wanted a middle. I began to think about that statement. What is a “middle”? where does it start and where does it stop? how do we know when we are entering the middle? when do we exit? what’s in the middle? what does it look like? what does it feel like?

We as a collective society move at such a pace that we can’t even keep up with our own thoughts, much less our own lives.  There are so many quotes about the pace that life moves. But have you ever stopped and considered that a good bit of it we can control? I believe time is only a thief if we don’t steward it well. The older I get, the more I realize (as I’m sure you have too) how incredibly precious AND powerful time is. I have missed so much of my middle. How much of your middle have you missed? I think it would do us all good to pause and think of what we allowed to steal our time and how we have allowed it to be stolen.

The middle is the best part! Think about all the different middles. The middle of a sandwich. The middle of a donut, a cookie,  a cake, etc…. We even stuff chickens and burgers with amazing ingredients because we know that whatever is in the middle will determine how the end result will taste and what the texture will be like. We also put great effort into other types of middles. Our pillows. our bedding and mattresses. our computers and other electronics. Our homes. We spend a great deal of money, time, effort, sweat, and emotion filling our homes with things to make it feel cozy and inviting. Our home is a middle! It’s in the middle of wood, sheetrock, insulation, piping, wires, brick, stucco, etc. The inside of our homes is where the good stuff is. The people. The memories. Life. The good, the bad, and every single thing in between. But when things happen like plumbing issues, leaks, an appliance breaks, something electrical, a job loss, a breach of trust, or communication issues, our focus shifts, and suddenly, if we aren’t careful, we step out of our middle and begin to let ourselves be robbed.  Robbed of peace, and joy, and love, and steadfastness and many other things. We begin to get unsettled and unraveled. That’s where I’ve found myself SO MANY TIMES!!!

So, how do we get back in the middle? I believe we just have to decide to get back in. And then make up your mind it’s where you are going to stay! It’s your life, you get to choose to be a part of your middle or not. . Staying in the middle is work. We have to guard it. Fight for it. Protect it. We must be watchmen on the walls of our hearts, our minds, our homes, and our families. we have to stay in prayer over it. We are the gatekeepers of our middle. How do you want it to ebb and flow? Not that we can control certain things that happen, but we absolutely can control how we let it affect us and our families.  God gave us the most powerful weapon to protect our middle. He gave us prayer. We MUST stay on bended knee. We MUST keep our hearts postured towards heaven. We MUST be diligent in our meeting with Him. It can’t be an option. It must be non-negotiable. E.M. Bounds said it like this in his book on prayer, “Everything was possible to the men and women who knew how to pray, and it is still possible today. Prayer, indeed, opened a limitless storehouse, and God’s hand withheld nothing. Prayer introduced those who practiced it into a world of privilege, and brought the strength and wealth of heaven down to the aid of finite man.”  In the book of James it tells us that ‘“the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. Prayer is the key to not let time be a thief. It wasn’t meant to be that anyway. We need a perspective shift.

Time is a gift. Time is a privilege. Our middles are the part of our lives God gave us control over. We couldn’t control how we got here or when. and in the same way, we can’t control how or when we will leave. But sister, you do have complete say-so of your middle! Our prayers can move the heart of the Father. We see it over and over in scripture. He gave us that power when he gave us prayer. It’s up to us how we use that privilege. It’s a hard-fought way of life for sure. We were never promised easy, but He did promise to move on our behalf if we would petition Him. If we would knock and seek His face. He promised to be there, ready to move.  Even when He doesn’t move or answer the way we want Him to, He’s still keeping His promise by covering us and giving us the very best of Him.  A good Father doesn’t give us everything we want just because we want it, He leads us in the way that’s best for us now and in the future. And at the end of every single day, isn’t that what we want? I want His hand in every single second and step I take in my middle. The middle matters. It counts. Don’t let yourself be robbed of it by anxiety, or anger, or pride, or busyness or any other temptation that presents itself. Don’t take the bait!  He is the God of our middle.