Do you ever look back over your life and are shocked by how far you have come or are you one of those people whose so busy looking at how far you still have to go and feel discouraged?

Why is it that it’s often easier for most of us to be focused on and discouraged about what we’re lacking then to take the time and celebrate just how far we have come?

Honestly, I know this was something I struggled with for a long time because I would often feel like no matter how far I had come and how much I had learned and grew as a person, I still felt like I was so far off from where I should be.

But if we’re all honest with ourselves, as long as we’re alive there will always be room to learn and grow and none of us will ever truly arrive to this “destination” that most of us are chasing.

In fact, the only “destination” that we should be chasing and the only place where we will truly have arrived will be when those of us who lived for Christ make it to Heaven.

Until then we are all going through the many different transitions of life. I’ve even heard some people say you’re either headed into a storm, coming out of a storm or in the middle of a storm.

I recently was on a coaching call, and I was telling the coach about the many different transitions I was walking through and how I was feeling about all of them. I was hurt about people and things I had lost during these transitions, but I was also excited about the new opportunities I was experiencing.

After I explained my thoughts and my feelings, she said “you’re in the messy middle.”

The Messy Middle- a place where we find ourselves when we’re not where we want to be, but we’re definitely not where we used to be.

What makes the middle “messy,” is because there is a tension and a frustration that often comes with the length of how long our wait is in the middle.

Imagine you won a million dollars, but someone said you would have to wait until you’re able to claim it, but they didn’t tell you when you would be able to claim it.

You have this amazing prize waiting for you that you know is all yours, but you have no idea whether you have to wait a few hours or a few years. Wouldn’t that be frustrating?

Another thing that makes the middle so “messy” is the warfare we often experience while we’re waiting.

Satan knows God has great plans for us and he also knows the power and authority a person walks in when they walk into everything God has for them.

When we’re living on purpose and in purpose, we are a force to be reckoned with. Lives are changed when people encounter a person who is healed and whole in Christ.

Therefore, Satan knows he can’t stop the promises God has over our lives, but what he can do is get us caught up and distracted on the path to the promise- in the “messy” middle.

This is when you start to doubt that God could ever use you. This is when you start to question if you really heard God say what you heard. This is when the people closest to you let you down.

It is during this waiting and warfare, that you begin to feel it would be easier to go back to the way things were or to just settle for the way things are. But I want to encourage you, that when it seems like all hell is breaking loose in your life that you should actually get excited, because it often means your breakthrough is right around the corner.

There are so many examples in the bible where it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse for a person or a people and right at the midnight hour (as some people like to say), God shows up strong on behalf of his people. We see miracles break out. We see people get healed. We even see people raised from the dead.

The “messy” middle does not always feel like the best place to be, but I believe we do most of our growing and healing and becoming in the “messy” middle.

Going back to the million-dollar example…what would you do if you knew you had a million dollars GUARANTEED waiting on you?

Would you use your waiting time to dream of all the things you can do when you get the money? Would you use your waiting time to plan how you’re going to be a blessing to so many people and organizations? Would you use your waiting time to get with a financial advisor and discuss how you will ensure the longevity of your money?

Or would you use your waiting time to complain and pout about how unfair it is that you have to wait to claim your millions?

It sounds silly, but it’s a picture of what most of us do as we wait on the promises of God in our lives.

I think our best example is the children of Israel and how what was supposed to be an 11-day journey ended up taking them 40 years because all they did was complain and begged to go back to the way things were (which by the way was literal slavery).

My prayer for you is if you find yourself in the “messy” middle like I currently am, that you would have a perspective shift.

There will always be a wait between where you are and where you would like to be, but maybe how you wait plays a major part in how long you wait.

You’re going to make it to where God wants you to be, but you just may get there a lot sooner if you stop complaining and learn to enjoy the journey!