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Between a Rock and a God Place

By Judi Braddy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth”
(Psalm 121:1, NIV).

Spring has come once again — another season of hope and renewal. Seeing the many signs of rebirth all around us, we can’t help but feel excited and encouraged sensing the miracles of nature that lie just beneath the earth, waiting to happen. Hopefully the same is true in our spiritual lives. Yet we all know how difficult it can be when we wait—or wade—through several seasons desperately seeking a miracle yet seeing nothing happen. Believe me, I know.

It has been twenty seasons for my husband, Jim, and me, since our lives took an unexpected and devastating detour down the prodigal path with our oldest son. While I share parts of this story in my recent book, words cannot begin to describe the conflagration of conflicting emotions with which we have struggled over the years. The hurt and pain was often intermingled with hope and happiness. Yet, looking back, there is no question that God has been at work in all our lives. It is the only way any of us could have survived. What has kept us holding on to hope, season after season, was coming to understand that the process in between the mud and the miracle must count for something.

For one thing, I believe it is invaluable that we, as ministry leaders, reach the point of no longer seeing imperfection as failure. Instead, we should see that to be imperfect is to be human, and that humans must admit our great need for God. It is what keeps us real before God and humble in our own sight. One writer summed it up this way: “I’ve found that facing some of these shame-filled problems tenderizes us and helps to make us real.”

Also, have you ever noticed how personal experience can cause Scripture to jump off the page? Take for instance the passage in Romans 5:3-5 (NIV): “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Here’s another thing my life lessons have taught me. It seems you can’t get character without perseverance. Character means we discover who we are—or more accurately who God expects us to be—then begin to act accordingly. In order to do that, we must strive to understand who God is and what He expects. Once we know God, we can’t help but see His great heart of love. Because He loves us, we have hope. In turn, hope inspires us with a greater determination to persevere. Like the seasons, it’s a cycle that repeats itself, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.

These experiences have given us faith to know that the eventual outcome will be God’s doing, not our own. This means He will get the ultimate glory that He deserves. Through it all, we’ve done our best to follow God’s leading and fulfill His call on our life to minister to others, and to be faithful and personally responsible, even when our children have been irresponsible.

Because of our son, God has brought a plethora of people and circumstances into our lives that we would have never otherwise encountered. We’ve also had unbelievable opportunities for ministry and unending empathy for those traveling down any number of life’s painful paths.

No doubt there are times in the ministry when all of us would like to either give up or go up. But instead God is asking us to go on. It’s those days when we find ourselves living, as my dad used to say, “between a rock and a hard place.” During these times, we must decide over and over how we were going to live with the consequences of choices others have made—trying to look up when circumstances are weighing us down—living someplace between the hurt and the hope. Simply put, at some point we must make a conscious choice to allow pain, disappointment, and frustration to make us better, not bitter.

We know with God’s help all things are possible. It’s only as we trust Him and keep putting one foot in front of the other that we instead find ourselves living “between a rock and a God place.”

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