Mind The Gap
In London, there is something like the Subway in New York called the Underground or the Tube. As you are about to step onto the Tube, you can see below your feet where it says 'MIND THE GAP' on the ground. Then when inside, a women's voice repeats the phrase as the door shuts, "Mind the gap".
The reason why I explain is because of a conversation I had with a friend last night. He used to be my Resident Advisor at Vanguard and he graduated last year; we randomly caught up over tea and our adoration for movies and British things. Both of us were explaining where what we are up to, and at one point it got quiet and I just said, "Life right now is strange..."
My friend began explaining the movie Brave Heart (like I said, movie adoration to the extreme) and how the main character William Wallace has a period in the movie where there are these 'gap years'. After he comes back from this long absence, he wins the girl over, knows his mission, and goes and accomplishes it. My friend told me that is where he believes he is - in the gap years - and in that place you learn who you are, what you are to do, and how to love.
If you do not know what comprises you in full (mind + heart + soul + body) and love who you are in all those areas, how can you wholly love God? Not only, Him but how can you ever wholly love another? You can love Him and love others, your love is not 'fake', but there will always be a certain depth missing in your relationship with God and with others.
Ahead of you lies open gaps in your life. Life is one transition after another... After another... In-between them there will be times where you do not know what to do with the openness that lies ahead of you. You might have hopes and dreams - maybe even a plan that you think you have had laid out for years, but that gap, none-the-less, lies ahead still empty, still unknown.
In the moments you find yourself at a gap in life, what are you doing with it?
Complaining that you do not know what you are supposed to be doing?
Trying desperately to plan something so you can keep control?
Digging in your heals because you do not want to leave the comfort of where you are?
There are so many things we can do in the gap times of our lives, but the one that will add to us is trusting God in full faith to guide our steps in that time even if we feel we are walking blind. Take time to look at who you are (both the good and the bad) and allow yourself to love the quirky things you do. For me, I love singing in my car and I really don't care if I am at a stop light and I adore the times alone where I can sit in an old armchair drinking a large cup of tea reading a book by candlelight. I been able to love who I am alone - by myself - and from that I have learned to love other people with more depth and to see why God adores me so much and how I can adore Him more and more.
The gaps can be such a great time in life if you just allow yourself to explore in the gap.
"Not all who wander are lost." - JRR Tolkien
Sometimes in the gap, we can feel as if we are not doing anything of importance, but that is such a lie; it is one of the most defining parts of life we can walk into. And when we are there, even if we have no idea where we are exactly, it's okay to wander. I have always thought that if I was not 'doing' something all the time I was being stagnate, but I have realized there is a time to challenge myself about that, but in the gap times, it's okay to wander and stumble upon new things that I would not find at any other time of my life.
So, are you in a gap time? Or approaching one? And either way, if you are or not, how can you begin to explore who you are in the areas of heart, soul, mind, and body? And also just explore the area of life around you that you might have never experienced before?
Just remember: Mind the Gap.
xx Liv