After The Work

Stuck between a rock and a hard place is the phrase of the frustrated who cannot see their way forward. It is a dilemma without any good solutions, a time where we are neither moving forward nor backwards. To move over “the rock” will present consequences with “the hard place”. For example to get a new career would mean leaving friends or a good home, something you may not want to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be led like Israel through the desert by flame and smoke? How about a burning bush? Some sign from heaven that removes the rock or the hard place? We would like to move forward, but not at the expense of our futures. Is the grass truly greener, or does it just look that way?

The reality is that God moves at the right time in the right way. God’s answers do not come when we necessarily want them, but when they are supposed to happen. What is the difference between when we want them and the right time? Ourselves. Perhaps it is our fear instead of faith that wants answers. Maybe it is an unhealthy amount of ambition instead of humility. Often we want what we want at the expense of others, forgetting to love our neighbor or be concerned for them.

What we need is an everyday miracle. The grace to say “thy will be done”. The patience to say “it will come in time”. The key is relying upon God’s strength in our weakness. The apostle Paul wrote “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul was listing the amazing experiences he had with God as well as his struggles, discussing the “thorn” in his flesh he struggled with. Somehow God met Paul were he was at in the human condition and gave him a daily dose of what he needed.

This miracle is almost unnoticed by everyone else, like the flapping of a butterfly, unbeknownst to all except Paul. He had plenty of uncertainty in his life and ministry, not to mention hardship. He had his mountaintops and his valleys of faith, to be sure. The book of Acts record several times he was stuck in a rock of a shipwreck or the hard place of a prison. Thankfully, most of us are not in those shoes!

Instead of impatiently expecting resolution or God’s intervention, ask God for the grace to say “thy will be done”. Petition God for the sufficiency of his grace rather than the production of the miracle. There may be a good reason for the rock and hard place dilemma; perhaps it is to learn or for circumstances to change. We can pray for God’s daily bread and not for the feast. The feast will come, on His time.

Somehow Jesus fed the five thousand and “all ate and were satisfied”. God’s grace is sufficient to spread around to all of us. Perhaps we can find this grace we need not only in ourselves, but in others whom we share the burden. There may ways others have experienced the “rock and the hard place” and have come out the other side. Moses had Aaron, Paul had Timothy, perhaps there are others that you can join and see “where two or more are gathered”.