"In the mean time"

This past week, the whole staff attended a leadership conference in Anderson S.C. at Newspring Church. The last speaker of the day session was Stephen Furtick. His presentation was truly profound! He spoke of how the disciples were on the sea of Galilee, rowing with all their might against a terrible storm. Their valiant efforts had at best taken them less than half the way across the sea. They were stuck in the middle of a huge battle against the winds and the waves. And they were saying, "Jesus, we've done all we can do to make it thru this storm! Why aren't we there yet?" His comment was, "They weren't where they were before, but they also weren't where they were supposed to be." They were in the middle of what you might call "the meantime". What do you do when you're in the meantime? When you know from wince you've come and you also see where you're supposed to go, what do you do? What we see from the disciples was a determination to keep rowing. They kept pushing against the winds and the waves. Then suddenly, Jesus came walking on the water. He came to them and calmed the winds and the waves, and the disciples made it across the waters. The unknown variable in this journey was timing. The Scriptures refer to uncertain times like "when". When the disciples pushed off from shore. The next uncertain is when they arrived to the other side. Neither of these were defined in the Scriptures. They are only listed as "then" and "when". So when is then and when is when? It's simply when it's then and when it's when. We can't put a time table on where God wants to take MVC. We can come up with our 1, 3, 5 year, or beyond plans, but God only knows when it's then and when it's when. So what do we do in the meantime? First of all, we stay in the boat. We don't jump ship and try to go back to where we were before. We also don't jump ship and try to swim to the place where we think we're supposed to be. We just stay in the boat. And if we stay in the boat, we will see Jesus. He will be there for us and calm the winds and the storms. Isn't that a comforting thought? Doesn't that give us a surge of boldness? I believe this passage defines where we are as a church. We certainly aren't where we used to be, but we haven't yet arrived at where we're supposed to be. So what do we do in the meantime? We stay in the boat and wait on Jesus. He will calm the winds and the waves and make a way for us to get to the other side. We've got to have faith in His faithfulness and trust in Him to make the way!!! Let's keep embracing the Savior in this endeavor He has given us... I'm all in! Are you!

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