The Middle

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16 NIV)
 
                                                  The Middle
 
The middle of the road is not a good place to be
In the middle of a storm a ship is lost at sea
In the middle of a story it’s hard to see the way
In the middle of decision I often run away
 
In the middle of a tempest the heart is left in fear
In the middle of a song the end will soon be near
In the middle of recovery it’s hard to see the light
In the middle of disagreement I often lose my sight
 
The middle of the ocean is a long way from shore
The middle of a dark alley is a long way from your door
In the middle of a conversation the outcome is unknown
This middle ground I’ve fallen in love with,
holds a high cost to my soul…
 
 
Salvation is transformation.  It’s leaving the path of all we used to be, to walk the path where the road narrows into a single small purposeful journey.  Middle ground is the space between who we were without Christ, and what we can become with Him.  It’s the hovering between all of the things you ‘loved’ about your old life while feeling the pull, the weight of the unknown, new life of walking in the Spirit.  The middle is a dangerous place to dwell.  It’s alluring because it does not require transformation, the only thing required in the middle is apathy; the place where all passions affecting conduct are regarded as unreasonable.  There is a lack of desire for change.  Comfort takes the place of cataclysm; the violent upheaval of heart that brings about a fundamental change. 
 
You can be saved in the sense of knowing Christ Jesus died for you and rose again, without embarking on the necessary and hard won journey of transformation that Jesus secured through His death, burial and resurrection.  You see, He didn’t die for you so that you could live unchanged, lounging in the middle ground, not acknowledging the price He paid to liberate you, to give you a new life, a new heart, and a forever changed soul. 
 
Are you lukewarm? Standing in the middle of the road, neither cold in rejecting Him altogether, nor hot in full surrender?  What is it you think you will lose by forfeiting your life to the One who overcame death?  “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39 NRSV) Listen to Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning (standing in the middle of the road) so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (How can we hang out where we weren’t meant to be?) Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Additional wording in parentheses added)
 
I encourage you to start stepping out of the middle of the road…it’s so easy to get side swiped by fear, to be run over by addictions, to be a deer in the headlights as loss clouds your vision and stalks your emotional life, to be overtaken by the traffic of anger, confusion, worry, chaos, apathy, deception, and ease. 
 
Trust Him and with each step you will get warmer and warmer as the heat of His love forever holds you and brings you home…
 
 
 
 
Written by Anne Marie Hawke
April 2021
 
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