Where I live, the trees are already bare. The colours and the beauty has fallen, as quickly as it arrived. The cool wind does more than nip at my ears, and any day now, that white blanket could cover my surroundings. I thought by now, by this time in 2020, I wouldn’t be so petrified of the looming winter months. I assumed we would be further away from the isolation and the loneliness. In March, I naively thought, surely this can’t extend beyond the summer. As I gaze out the window at the fallen leaves I wonder how far into this season of life, we actually are. Are we closer to the end than to the beginning or are we in the very middle?

 Have you ever met a leader who calls themselves a middle person? 

I have come across some amazing men and woman who call themselves starters. They are dreamers and visionaries and like to birth new ideas. They have this gift of rallying people behind them, and blazing their own new trail. They’ve often got more ideas than they know what to do with, and if you stand close enough you’ll catch their vision and their zest for life. 

I have also met many inspiring finishers. Those type A personalities who like to tie all the bows. They know how to celebrate and to honour those around them. These are the people you call, when you’ve lost your drive and need someone to push you through to the ending. They are encouragers, and have a way of envisioning everything coming together. These leaders are confident, assertive and attentive to every last detail. Under them you will feel encouraged and be inspired by their vision of everything coming together perfectly. 

It’s very rare, when I encounter someone who calls themselves a middle person. Surely these people exist. Perhaps our culture of highlight reels and hustlers have silenced them, or maybe we’ve forgotten the deep need we have for people who are steady and keep us going, for the many hours between sunrise and sunset. I need them in my life, and we all need them to speak up right now. 

What would it mean to be someone who thrives in the middle? What kind of characteristics would this person embody and what kind of vision do they hold?

I’m in the middle, of a number of seasons in life, and I suspect you are too. Perhaps you’re in the middle of a drought, struggling with depression, anxiety or loneliness. Maybe you’re in the middle of a life transition, a job loss, or your vision for your future has shattered into a million little pieces. You may be facing health struggles, grief, divorce, or any number of the ailments caused by living in this fallen world, that leave us lost and broken in the middle. If nothing else, we are altogether in the middle of this strange and uncertain COVID-19 life. 

I imagine many of you, like me, are gasping for air in this middle ground. The beginning is so far behind us and the end is nowhere in sight. You’re trying to lead family and friends into conversations of respect and unity. You’re leading ministries that are struggling to survive without the ease of close human connection. You’re leading children, struggling with their own losses in a world of confusion and division. And in your own life, you’ve barely had one spare minute to breathe, let alone mourn your losses and keep up with the to do list that somehow expanded, in spite of the whole world shutting down. Starters are likely worn out and new ideas on ways to connect and adapt come less quickly. Finishers have no end in sight and are anxiously awaiting their chance to pull us altogether up and out. So how do we become thriving leaders in the middle?

The middle is where the hard and the messy and the broken parts of us, are truly exposed. All idols have come crashing down, and our ways of self-medicating have either had to intensify to meet the need, or they’ve just plain stopped working. Weariness has taken over and the overwhelm doesn’t leave with each new morning. This my friend, is where God works. This is where you are foraged into something. This is where diamonds come from.

What I am discovering is that the missing piece to thriving in the middle is Hope. When the beginning is far behind you and the end is nowhere in sight, it is the lack of hope that sucks you in. We begin to fall victim to the lie that there is no purpose that maybe things will not get better, that perhaps God’s goodness isn’t for me. 

Jeremiah 17: 7-8

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

    whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

    that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

    its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

    and never fails to bear fruit.”

I believe I am writing this to loudly proclaim hope over every person stuck in the middle. There is fruit to bear. You WILL bear fruit in this season. 

You, daughter of the king, are planted by the living water, and you will not be overtaken. 

Here is where you and I can become middle leaders. In whatever sphere you are currently leading, you can proclaim hope. Each and every one of us, is being formed into something stronger and more beautiful than before. This middle season you are in, will not last forever. Let us be women who lead from a place of hope and steadiness. Let the disappointments of this season of this life not leave us barren of the good fruit promised to those who abide in Him. Let us grieve and struggle and trust that He is doing a good thing.