by Dr. Richard Blackaby
History books are filled with turning points. Those are key events that turned the tide of a calamity or changed history in some fashion. The Battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar changed the nature of Europe. The invention of the printing press, and later the Internet, revolutionized society. The dropping of the atomic bomb did more than end World War Two; it ushered in the atomic age. There are numerous books that do nothing more than examine key moments in history when someone rose up to make a supreme difference in a war, crisis, government, or business.
Thomas Carlisle famously proposed the “Great Man Theory” which postulated that history was the summation of the efforts of great men. For many, there is an innate desire to do something with one’s life that could be attributed by posterity as “great.” Horace Mann once intoned: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” In 1832 Abraham Lincoln confessed: “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition . . . I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.” Most historians would agree that the Illinois lawyer ultimately achieved his goal.
But here’s the rub. Most people, even “great” leaders, do not spend the bulk of their time doing “great” things. Even Julius Caesar, Admiral Nelson, and Churchill did not spend every waking hour turning the tide of history. They each experienced what we know as the “in between times.” That is, those mundane moments when we are engaged in ordinary affairs while waiting to undertake something of greater significance.
It could be argued that people who dramatically change their world are not necessarily the ones who are constantly fighting battles or inventing new technologies, but those who mine their “down time” most effectively. Since the bulk of our life is spent in ordinary pursuits, it is how we use those periods in our lives that may well determine the sum total of our accomplishments.
In recent years I have been struck by the large number of people I meet who tell me they are currently in a time of “transition.” They may have been laid off their job. They may sense God leading them to quit their current employment and to venture out into something new. Some have suffered the loss of a loved one. These people know they will not remain in that place in life for long, but they are there now.
Change can be traumatic. Some people who are downsized from their company fall apart. They are in shock and unable to think clearly. They become consumed with finding another job. They worry and fret and desperately scan the help wanted pages of the newspaper. In God’s perfect timing, another job eventually is found, but the “in between time” was entirely wasted. The weeks or months spent in transition could have been invested much more wisely. The temporarily unemployed person might have volunteered at his church. She could have read some helpful books or taken a class to upgrade her skills. He might have invested time in relationships or spent time developing his devotional life. Instead, they squandered their time, worrying about their next job.
Some people lose their spouse to illness or divorce. Rather than investing time growing personally, they worry about finding another mate. When they do, the new companion gets the same person as before, because they never grew.
Others experience failure. These individuals are so frustrated and embarrassed by what transpired that they desperately want to “move on.” But they don’t grow. They may have “moved on,” but they are the same person who failed previously. History-changers are not people who “move on” from their failures; they are people who grow from their mistakes.
The prophet Jeremiah ministered to people in the “in between” stage of life. He wrote to the Israelite captives who had been relocated to Babylon. These displaced people desperately wanted to know if they would ever return to their homeland and be able to truly “live” once again. How long would they be cruelly consigned to live in exile?
Jeremiah replied, “For thus says the Lord; After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10). Seventy years! That was a long time of transition! Can you imagine wasting seventy years of your life waiting for things to become “normal” again? Yet some of those people would have done just that!
That is why the prophet also instructed them: “Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace” (Jer. 29:5-7).
God was urging his people not to waste time waiting for their lives to be different! He was saying they should live in such a manner that they blessed the city where they lived and the family that they raised. They should conduct themselves so that, even while they lived in exile, their family “increased” and was not “diminished.” Sadly, many children suffer under parents in the “in between time.” Rather than having a mother or father who continues to grow and to bless, they have parents who are curled up in a fetal position awaiting a change in their circumstances.
The truth is that one of the best ways to work your way out of a transition time is to grow. When I have people who are unemployed talk to me about a job, the first thing I do is not to ask them under what unfair circumstances they were let go by their previous employer. What I ask them is how they have been investing the “gift” of additional time their former employer bestowed upon them. Are they reading, taking classes, reflecting, and working with a mentor? The way we handle our transitions says much about our character.
John Churchill suffered the adverse affects of political intrigue. For six years he was banished from royal favor. Even though he was his nation’s most skilled military leader, he was forced to wait in the wings while lesser men held the reins of power. Yet his biographer, Winston Churchill observed: “Few features in Marlborough’s long life are more remarkable than the manner in which he steadily grew in weight and influence through the whole of the six years when he was banished from favour and office.” When John Churchill was finally restored and given an opportunity to lead, he became England’s greatest general. He never lost a battle in a decade of conflict and would ultimately be elevated to become the Duke of Marlborough. How he handled his “in between times” determined his effectiveness once he returned to the stage.
We cannot always determine how our employer or others treats us. But we can choose our response to the situation in life in which we find ourselves. We can mope and worry and cast blame, or we can grow and seek to bless those around us. If you find yourself in a place in your career or personal life that appears to be temporary, don’t squander it! Life is too precious to waste a day of it. But more, capitalize on those moments. It could well be that your future success hinges on what you do, in the mean time.