I write this as I am sitting here on the Megabus, along for the ride as it is drives toward its destinations. As I look around, there is a dense fog all around us, and the rain creates a steady pitter-patter across the glass roof. In front of me, a pair of Indians are softly joking in what I assume is Hindi. I hear a woman speaking Spanish to someone somewhere behind me. Everyone else, my seat mate included, is fast asleep. This makes me wonder: Why must we as humans think about points so much? Why must we think so much of point A and point B?<\/p>\n
It is not even in relation to just <\/i>traveling either, oh no.\u00a0Throughout a given term in school, all we think about is getting as many points as possible on that final exam and on the midterm, not really paying attention to any points in between \u201cstart\u201d and \u201cfinish,\u201d to the things we are learning, to the power God is filling us with to not even necessarily be 4.0 students, but simply students doing as God so declares we are to do.<\/p>\n
However, regardless of whether we are talking about grades and education or traveling on a Megabus, just along for the ride, we focus so much on \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d that we fail to notice the beauty of the \u201cin between.\u201d\u00a0We sleep through it, thinking it insignificant, when the journey truly is just as important (if not more <\/i>important) than the destination itself.<\/p>\n
Life itself is a series of points.\u00a0In infancy, we learn to crawl, then to walk, then to talk.\u00a0As a toddler, we learn what \u201cno\u201d means.\u00a0We start grade school at 4 or 5.\u00a0We hit puberty.\u00a0We get our driver\u2019s license and our first car.\u00a0We get our first date, our first kiss.\u00a0We graduate from high school and go to college, or we just go right into the work force.\u00a0If we go to college, we go through final exams and midterms galore, but focus only on graduating with a GPA that will only matter in getting that initial job.\u00a0Some of us continue on in school, entering school to focus on getting out as soon as we can.\u00a0Eventually, we get jobs, focused only on when we can retire.\u00a0Somewhere between high school graduation and retirement, we reach the \u201cpoints\u201d of \u201cgetting engaged,\u201d \u201cmarriage,\u201d \u201canniversaries,\u201d and \u201cstarting a family.\u201d Once we retire, we focus on \u201cthe end,\u201d but also are forced to begin to look at and find joy in the \u201cin between.\u201d\u00a0We may even begin to think how foolish we were to not enjoy it all those years ago.\u00a0When \u201cthe end\u201d finally arrives, there is the afterlife, which has no end, no point B.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, I ask you, no, I implore <\/i>you, in this nameless season between Christmas and Lent, stop your busy-bodying.\u00a0Arise from your sleeping through the \u201cin between\u201d and look around.\u00a0God created more than just points 1, 2, 3, et al.\u00a0He created an infinite number of \u201cin betweens.\u201d\u00a0Look at them, because they exemplify His glory just as much as the \u201cpoints\u201d we focus so much on.\u00a0I know this is something\u00a0I need to work on, but let us all open our eyes to the beauty of the \u201cin between,\u201d of all <\/i>God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Written by Bradley Rito, MDiv student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I write this as I am sitting here on the Megabus, along for the ride as it is drives toward its destinations. As I look around, there is a dense fog all around us, and the rain creates a steady pitter-patter across the glass roof. In front of me, a pair of Indians are softly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[10,33,36],"series":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theological-reflection","tag-call-to-ministry","tag-seminary-experiences","tag-spiritual-journeys"],"yoast_head":"\r\n