Stuck in the Middle: Is that a bad thing?

"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16 (KJV)

I posted something on social media recently that felt more honest than I planned for it to be.

I said: I feel like I am living in a space where I am in the best season and the worst season of my life at the same time.

And I meant every word.

The best, because God has given me options. Real ones. As long as I move in His will, there is room. There is freedom. There are multiple ideas I want to act on, multiple roads I can see, and the calling on my life has never felt more clear.

The worst, because knowing your calling and fully committing to it are two entirely different things. And I have been living in the space between them for longer than I want to admit.

That space is the middle. And this article is for everyone who knows exactly what I am talking about.

What the Middle Actually Feels Like

The middle is not bad. That is what makes it so dangerous.

Nothing is falling apart. Financially, you are okay. You have a job, a platform, something to show for the work you have put in. Things are moving. You can feel momentum somewhere underneath the surface. You know things are coming together.

But there is something missing. A restlessness that does not leave. A quiet but persistent sense that what you are doing is not the full thing. That you were made for more, you know you were made for more, and yet you are still operating in a fraction of your capacity.

That restlessness, for me, comes from knowing my mandate. After being in the mental health hospital in 2022, God was clear with me: help my people get whole. Help my people get free. Help my people heal so they can go out and administer in the marketplace.

That is the assignment. That has always been the assignment.

And I have spent years behaving as if I did not know how to move forward with it, when God had already given me the blueprint. I just kept wrestling with committing to it. One foot in, one foot out. That is what the middle looks like from the inside.

Two Voices in One Week

I had a call recently with Nicole Walters, an incredible entrepreneur and business adviser. She asked me a direct question: What is keeping you from going all in?

I had to laugh. Because the answer was me.

A few days later I had another conversation with Dr. Matisa Wilbon, an extraordinary ministry and leadership adviser. She said the same thing in different words. You are vacillating between this and that. Make a decision. Commit to it. Walk it out.

Two different people. One week. The same message.

When God sends the same word through two different messengers in seven days, it is time to stop analyzing and start moving.

Both of them were right. The Holy Spirit told me years ago that whatever I decide to do, He would bless it as long as it was in His will. That promise was never the problem. The problem was me sitting on the edge of it, comfortable enough to stay but called to something that required me to fully cross over.

The Lukewarm Problem

I want to be clear about something. When I talk about being lukewarm, I am not talking about faith. I am not talking about a crisis of belief or a wavering relationship with God.

I am talking about execution. About vacillating between how I want to do things and how God has clearly told me to do them. About sitting in the tension of having a word from God and still hedging my bets. Still keeping options open. Still not fully planting my feet.

That is its own kind of lukewarm. And God does not honor it any more than He honors cold faith.

"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." James 1:8 (KJV)

Unstable in all his ways. Not some. All. When you are double-minded, you cannot build with consistency. You cannot lead with authority. You cannot serve with focus. The instability touches everything because it starts at the root.

What Is Actually Keeping You There

Most of us in the middle are not there because we lack vision. We are there because we are trying to do all the things instead of doing one thing well.

We have ten ideas. We want to act on all of them. We are afraid that choosing one means losing the others. And so we stay in a holding pattern, moving but not landing, busy but not focused, productive but not purposeful.

And when we show up to lead our businesses, our ministries, our teams from that place, people can feel it. The lack of full commitment. The hedging. The unresolved question of who we are and what we are actually here to do.

Because here is the truth I have had to sit with myself. The people who are assigned to you, the ones you are called to do life with in business, in ministry, in family, in friendship, they are waiting for the version of you who has decided. Who has made the choice. Who shows up certain about who God created them to be and what He called them to do.

That version of you changes the room the moment you walk in.

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve." Joshua 24:15 (KJV)

Joshua did not say choose eventually. He did not say choose when you feel ready. He said this day. The choice is always available in the present moment. And the present moment is always where obedience lives.

What Getting Out of the Middle Looks Like

Getting out of the middle starts with a decision. Not a plan. A decision.

The plan comes after you decide. The clarity comes after you commit. God does not reveal the full staircase before you take the first step. He shows you the step that is in front of you and waits to see what you do with it.

For me, getting out of the middle means fully owning that my calling is bigger than the classroom. Bigger than business strategy. Bigger than PR expertise or brand building or a magazine or a podcast, as much as I love every single one of those things. My calling is about souls. About helping people get whole so they can go into the marketplace and build the kingdom. That is the center of everything I do.

When I do the work I am actually called to do, whether it is through Lead and Influence, through SAVEDpreneur, through teaching at SCAD, it flows. I do not have to force it. The ease is the confirmation.

I was prophesied to years ago that people would come to me for business support and what they would actually get is freedom and deliverance. I have come to terms with that. I am okay with it. More than okay. I am ready.

This Is Your Wake Up Call Too

If this article resonated with you, I do not think that was an accident.

Maybe you are in a season where nothing terrible is happening and nothing spectacular is happening either. You are just okay. Moving. Making progress somewhere. But you know in your spirit there is more. That you are hovering at the edge of something God is trying to pull you into fully.

This is your wake up call. God is calling you to pick a side and walk it out. Not perfectly. Not with every answer in hand. But with the willingness that Isaiah 1:19 talks about. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

Willingness and obedience. That is all He is asking for. And when you give Him that, He handles the rest.

If you see yourself in this article, if you know you are in a season of transition and you want someone who walks with God to walk with you through it, I am here. The work I do with leaders is not just about strategy. It starts with the person. Who you are. Who God called you to be. And how to build from that place with clarity, wholeness, and purpose across every dimension of your life.

You can learn more reach out to me directly. The door is open.

Maleeka Hollaway is the founder of SAVEDpreneur Media and Lead and Influence, a strategic advisory practice for high-capacity leaders who are ready to stop operating from the middle and start building from a place of full commitment. Follow her at SAVEDpreneur.com.