Everything Is Interim

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

—Psalm 16:11

I went for a walk one day with my friend Rosa. She’s an elder at our church and has four kids. Her husband owns a successful dental practice. The last few years they’ve been traveling, helping churches all over the world, and they’ve decided to move to North Africa.

I commented that this season, while they’re selling their house and getting ready to move, must feel like an interim season. “You know, Shauna,” she said, “everything is interim. Every season that I thought was stable and would be just how it was for a long time ended up being a preparation or a path to the next thing. When you decide to be on this journey with God, everything is interim.”

Life is like that, twisty and surprising. But life with God is like that exponentially. We can dig in, make plans, write in stone, pretend we’re not listening, but the voice of God has a way of being heard. It seeps in like smoke even when we’ve barred the door, and it moves us, to different countries and emotional territories and ways of living. It keeps us moving and dancing and watching. And with the surprises comes great hope.