Meanwhiles

This was intended to be a journal entry, but ended up having a blog-type feel to it, so I figured I'd share it.

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It's a meanwhile. I don't know if it's a "meanwhile until I get married" or "until something happens with worship or music" or all of the above (or even something entirely different), but I know it's a meanwhile.

Which is what makes it so frustrating.

It's hard to believe that meanwhiles matter. After all, they're just the space between milestones, aren't they?

But life is meanwhiles. I am who I am because of the meanwhiles.

So, while my tendency is to define myself by events--or lack thereof--(which, the more I think about, the more I realize is sort of a cultural mindset) I'm defined by the meanwhiles.

While culture identifies by age, education, and relationship status, what I did, the choices I made, lessons I learned, and character I built are what matters. The meanwhile I spent in highschool was incomparably more important than the two-hour ceremony or piece of paper (which I subsequently lost and had to get replaced). The meanwhile I spent between my last two birthdays was infinitely more important than the 24 hours of birthday (as will the next one I hope).

I've heard it said multiple ways: "Enjoy the process." "Eat what's on your plate." Most recently, "Take joy in the life God's given you." But I always imagined the plate being empty at some point or the process ending.

But it's the meanwhiles that compose life. And even if all I learn in this meanwhile is just how meaningful meanwhiles are (and how important it is to enjoy them), then this meanwhile will be worthwhile.