This Week at Fincastle

Monday, December 18, 2023

Click the links below for photo albums from Christmas at Fincastle and Jellico!

Fincastle Christmas 2023

38 new items added to shared album

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Jellico Christmas 2023

17 new items added to shared album

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Advent Reflections

Living in the In-Between

Stephanie Lloyd

I am employed by two different ministry organizations: I am the Director of Discipleship at Fincastle Church, as well as the coordinator for our Jellico outreach project, and I am the Administrative / Development Coordinator for the Campbell County Christian Learning Center. I am engaged to the wonderful Justin Hester, preparing for a wedding in March, and more importantly, preparing for a life together. I am growing into new relationships with Justin’s community of friends and ministry workers in Jellico. We have been in premarital counseling and have been learning how to balance time spent with each of our families, circles of friends, and commitments to work. I am soon to be a step-mom to 8-year-old Aleeyah, soon to move into a new home, and soon to navigate life as a family in ministry work together. I currently live with my parents, and I can’t say I’m always easy to live with. Some of my best friends were made in college and live in various states. I did not grow up in Campbell County, so I have worked to develop local friendships in the past 5 years here. As an introvert who likes to stay busy, new friendships have taken time, but God has brought some amazing people into my life through church, work, and now Justin’s community. I have loved growing deeper at Fincastle, and it has impacted me in life-changing ways. I am trying to balance a life of working for God (time commitments, energy spent, investing in the growth of others) and a life with God (intimacy with Him as my Father, friend, and All-in-All).

It often feels like a tug-of-war, and I am in the “in-between”… like everything is competing for my time and attention–relationships, family, work commitments, the spiritual needs of others, and my own spiritual life. I am in between multiple jobs, in between singleness and marriage, in between having no children and suddenly being a step-parent, in between homes, in between friendships, and in between learning how to follow Jesus and leading others to follow Jesus.

I always want to do it all, and to do it all perfectly. Then, when I disappoint someone or drop the ball in a specific area, I feel stupid, incapable, and fake. I watch my own abilities unravel. There is a cycle of perfectionism that I am continually tempted to fall into. When I stop and spend time with the Father in prayer and in His Word, my own attempts at perfecting my life seem utterly ridiculous. Yet, there is always still work to be done, family obligations to tend to, friendships to invest in, and new challenges to face.

I think my perfectionism tries to tell me that if I could only get to a new and better season of life, that responsibilities would be easier to manage, daily and weekly routines would be consistent, time with the Lord would come naturally, rest and exercise would be regular, and my love for God and neighbor would just simply flow out of me. And then I compare my ideal life picture to the life of Jesus, and there is a sharp contrast. If you study the gospel accounts of Jesus, it will reveal to you how much Jesus lived in the “in-between” and how He allowed that to draw Him deeper into intimacy with the Father and obedience to His will, rather than giving it as an excuse to dismiss intimacy and obedience.

Jesus’ ministry life was full of traveling from village to village, teaching many people who didn’t quite “get it”, dealing with conflicts within His own group of disciples and traveling companions, exhaustion from working miracles, grief from confronting sin, and demands to be in various places at once. But because Jesus was so intentional about spending time with His Father and submitting to His will, Jesus always knew exactly what was most important in each moment. He knew when to say yes and no to commitments. He knew when to engage publicly with people who wanted His attention and when to retreat privately by Himself or with His closest friends. He lived amidst the demands of the “in-between” and submitted to the Father rather than the tug-of-war everyone else begged of Him.

We all live in the “in-between”. In fact, that is exactly what the season of Advent is meant to remind us. “Advent” means “arrival”, and we live between two Advents. The First Advent was the arrival of Jesus, God in the flesh on earth. He came to proclaim that, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). Jesus fulfilled His saving work on the cross and began the new creation of humanity through His resurrection and the sending of His Spirit. As a result, each believer in Jesus has become the temple or dwelling place for God on earth (Acts 2, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 6:19).

The Second Advent will be when Jesus returns to earth to completely restore creation and dwell with His people once again (Revelation 21). In the new creation, all of heaven and earth will be His temple, and we will know Him face to face as a bride prepared for her groom. Waiting for that day to be fulfilled feels like a tug-of-war. Scripture describes it like this: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now” (Romans 8:22). There is a constant competition for our attention and affections with all the work we are called to do on earth. We are living in between the pull of our human nature and our fully sanctified spirits, in between our decaying bodies and the healed bodies God will give us, in between a veiled knowledge of God and seeing Him face to face, and in between the original call to make disciples of all nations and the fulfillment of every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Yet we, like Jesus, are called to live in submission to the Father in between these two Advents. What a messy and exhausting call on our lives. I know the temptations to either a.) wear myself out fighting for a self-made perfection or b.) want to give up entirely. The good news is that we are not called to empower ourselves to win this tug-of-war. As Jesus modeled, this is about full dependence on the Father. If it doesn’t begin there, we cannot achieve anything. I have to remind myself to start with prayer, start with God’s Word, start with intimacy and dependance on Him. He will then instruct us on the way to go, the truth to believe, and the daily steps to take as we move forward. Here are Jesus’ words about how He desires to reveal His gospel and His will for all who will submit to Him:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him. Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” (John 15:1-5)

Will you lean in to take His yoke and learn from Him? Will you remain in Him like a branch connected to a vine? It will take time, humility, patience, and submission to His leadership. It will remind you that you are still in between two Advents–Jesus’ first and second coming. Your life circumstances will still keep you in-between various commitments and important obligations. But nothing will satisfy your tug-of-war struggle but Jesus Himself. In the midst of temptations to fight for self-made perfection or give up entirely, you can choose to come to Jesus and find rest for your soul. Remaining in Jesus, He will work in you to produce much fruit.