These past few months leading up to the World Race have put me in a unique place. An In-between place, where I have to live not only in the present but in the future as well. I have to jump back and forth and be able to focus on people here and future people and in all honesty, it’s tiring and it’s draining, but so necessary.
“He only talked of one Other World. But suppose there were dozens of them?”
“You mean, this wood might be only one of them?”
“No, I don’t believe this wood is a world at all. I think it’s just a sort of an in-between place.” “A place that isn’t in any of the worlds, but once you’ve found that place, you can get into them all.”
In the Magician’s Nephew, there was this woods with many pools. The woods was alive, but there was no life. And the woods held pools that led into many worlds, but was not a world itself. And if you stayed in the woods long enough, you wouldn’t experience worry, but you would begin to lose all purpose in living life. It was a special place, but also a place that you couldn’t stay.
I find myself in this in-between place, in this Woods between the Worlds, where I retreat away from everyone to just get peace and breathe. My family and friends and job demand me to be focused on here and now. I have to plan and decorate and spend time with people and be absolutely present. But there’s another place I have to give time to. It’s a month from now, and it’s a group of 45 people that I don’t know completely, and it’s 11 countries and hundreds of people that need me to be prepared to pour out my life to them. And in order to be prepared, I have to focus on things that nobody in my present world is a part of.
And so the worlds come into conflict. One pulls from the other. The present wants all my time, but the future knows that there’s only a little time left. Like different languages, my mind has to multi-task and switch between present concerns and future needs.
My finances have to cover the bills and gas and food for this month, but also the bills and needs for 2017. I cannot buy the warm boots because the mosquito net for January needs to be purchased. I want to go out, but I know that saving money for my family is more important.
And because of this conflict, I find myself wanting to retreat, wanting to escape all worlds and just stay in the Woods between the Worlds, where there are no pressures, deadlines, or schedules to keep.
However, every time I begin to pull away, there is a small little nudge on my heart reminding me that very shortly, my worlds will collide, and I need to be ready.
The way I end this season here is the way I will live the season then. If I don’t value the people now, if I don’t join in on experiences now, come month 9 of the World Race, I will do the same thing and miss out on something very special and unique. And that is something that I can’t live with.
So I will continue to jump back and forth between these worlds, and value the gift of the Woods between the Worlds because not everyone gets to have this time of anticipation for the future and love for the present. They are both important, and they both deserve my time. And soon, there will only be one, and I will no longer have the chance to make the snowmen with my brother or watch the messages with my best friend. I won’t get to plan the office Christmas party, because there will be no office where I am going.
My present and my future are about to collide, and I want to give my best, because God’s called me to love and make a difference in both.
