I was updating a dear friend on Facebook about where our family was and what we were up to last week and she responded: “In the midst of ministry…” That phrase, “in the midst,” has been walking with me over the past week.
It fits so much of this stage of life. Our nine-month-old is in the midst of getting a tooth, a process that has seemed to take forever. She is also in the midst of learning to sleep through the night. Our three almost-four-year-old is in the midst of developing his independence, his voice, and his passions. We are in the midst of the school year with four kids in four different schools spanning from middle school to nursery school. We are in the midst of getting settled into a new office space, a new phase of our company’s identity and history. We are in the midst of our first year at a new church with an amazing community of faith.
It’s easy when you are “in the midst” to want this season and this phase to be over. Your life seems like it is in constant transition and is constantly changing. And it is.
You aren’t sure what each day or night is going to hold. You wake up with one kid coughing and try to hide the other kids from him praying that the cough doesn’t go through every single member of the family, but just a small percentage. But in the midst of all the uncertainty and all the changing and transitioning, there are small glimpses of what life may look like in two years or three years. There the overwhelming moments of all four kids dancing and laughing together. The disbelief that an office door now holds the logo and name of something you have built from an inkling, an idea that just wouldn’t stop waking you up at night.
This is the part of being in the midst I love. The awe and wonder that each new day holds. The invitation to witness the miracles of growing mini-humans. The collaboration and creation of working with your partner where work and life and family all meet in the midst of this rainy October day.