Between a Rock and a Hard Place

There are always times in our lives when we feel trapped. We don't want to stay where we are, but we don't know which way to turn. The Israelites experienced that when they stood on the shore of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army on the hills behind them. How in the world could they get out of such a situation? They had no answers -- but God did. This sermon reminds us that God can still get us out of situations like that!

So there were the Israelites, standing on the shore of the Red Sea. They couldn’t go any further; they were blocked by the massive body of water that sat in their way. And there were the Egyptians, positioned on the hills behind them, waiting for the signal to swoop down and massacre the whole bunch of them. Their escape from Egypt that had begun so miraculously and seemed so promising was now threatening to end in disaster. They were, as we might say, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? Sure you have. We all have. I know that I have. You can’t go forward, you can’t go back, and you can’t stay where you are. It’s the kind of situation that puts a “deer in the headlights” look on your face. We want to jump out of the way, but we don’t even know which way to jump. What exactly do we do when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place? Well, there are several answers to that question; and most of them are bad ones. Some people try to go back the way they came. Like a badly beaten army, they sound the call to retreat; and they try to run away to a time that seems to be safer. But we can’t go back, as much as we might want to. The Israelites thought that they wanted to do that – to go back to Egypt – but they didn’t really want to do that. What they wanted to do was to escape Pharaoh’s army, not go back to Egypt as slaves under Pharaoh’s thumb! Other people try to force their way ahead, even if that way has a big “Road Closed” sign hanging over it. That doesn’t work, either. If you try to go through a “Road Closed” sign, you end up running off the road altogether. You might even fall into a big hole where the road has been washed away! No, forcing your way ahead isn’t a good idea, either.  Maybe the worst answer of all is sitting down and giving up. When you’re caught between a rock and a hard place – when you can’t go forward and you can’t go back – sitting down and giving up is a tempting option. If you give up, you get to complain about how unfair life is, and how you aren’t responsible for what happens to you, and how much better other people have it than you do. But in the end, giving up is the one option that is absolutely guaranteed to get you nowhere! You can’t make any progress when you’re sitting on your backside complaining.

So… what are we supposed to do when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place? If we can’t go forward and we can’t go back and we aren’t ready to give up, what option is left to us? Moses had an answer for that, when the Israelites lost all hope and decided that “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” “Don’t be afraid,” Moses told them. “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you; and you need only to be still.” And, of course, God did just that. We all know the story of how the Red Sea divided, right down to its sandy bottom. The Israelites walked across that sand to safety, right between two huge walls of water, one on their right and one on their left. But when the Egyptian army tried to follow them, their chariot wheels were clogged with wet sand, so that their progress was slow. Some of their chariot wheels completely fell off so that they couldn’t make any progress at all. They finally realized that the God of the Israelites was working on their behalf; but by the time that the Egyptians turned back, it was too late. The Red Sea water crashed back into its place in a mighty flood, sweeping the Egyptians away by its power. No one Egyptian escaped; but not one Israelite was harmed. Indeed, God did fight for the Israelites when they had given up all hope.

God still fights for us, you know, even when we have given up all hope. When we are caught between a rock and a hard place – when we can’t go forward, and we can’t go back, and we can’t stay where we are – that is the time when we most need to trust God to show us the way. God can always see a way out, when we can’t see anything but our own problems. God knows things that we don’t know; and God has power that we don’t have. Why, God is able to provide options for us that we never even dreamed of. The Israelites certainly never imagined that God could provide a dry road for them right through the middle of the sea! We can’t imagine what God can do on our behalf, either. But we need to trust that God will do something on our behalf. I have a sign titled “Memo from God” that is posted right above my work desk at home. This is what it says: “I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need any help. If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the box labeled ‘Something for God to Do’, and I will resolve the situation in my own way and in my own time.” Is that a reminder that you need to hear? A lot of people do.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we should sit down and do nothing. But it does mean that when we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, we should trust that God will help us to handle the situation. When we can’t go forward, we can’t go backwards, and we can’t stay where we are, God has promised us to show us the way out. My mother used to say that “God never shuts a door without opening a window.” When the door ahead of us is tightly closed, maybe we should pray hard, and then look for a window that’s about to open. We frequently miss that window, because we're so focused on the problems in front of us that we don't see the solution that creeps in behind us and taps us on the shoulder.

That’s what happened to Quentin. Quentin was married to Sharon, who was the love of his life. They had a beautiful family – five wonderful children – and Quentin worked as a high school teacher and coach, a job that he loved. Their lives seemed to be perfect. Then, when their youngest child was only a year old, Sharon was diagnosed with ALS – Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Without any warning, Quentin found himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a progressive degeneration of the nerve cells in the body. It begins with muscle weakness and continues, in the end stages, to complete paralysis. Folks who suffer from it eventually need around-the-clock care, and the equipment required to keep them healthy is very costly. Most of its victims are eventually placed in a nursing home, because to care for them at home is physically and emotionally draining. That’s what Quentin was advised. “Put your wife in a nursing home, because you won’t be able to care for her.” But Sharon was the love of Quentin’s life, and he resolved to keep her at home no matter what. He had promised to care for her in sickness and in health, and by golly, that’s exactly what he intended to do! So Quentin’s life between a rock and a hard place began. He got up every morning before the sun rose to get the children up and dressed and out the door by 7:00 a.m. After a full day of teaching and coaching, he returned home to care for Sharon and the children. He got dinner, did the dishes, helped the children with their homework, gave them their baths, did the laundry, and then collapsed into bed. Every night he would cry himself to sleep and pray for help.

Then one day, Leo, a fellow teacher asked him, “How is Sharon doing? Do you need any help?” “Oh, no,” Quentin replied, “we’re fine.” That night, as Quentin began his daily prayer, he heard God speaking loud and clear. God said something like this. “Who do you think you were talking to this morning? Here you are asking me for help again, and I just sent Leo to give you that help!” When Quentin went to school the next day, he found Leo and told him the truth. He was exhausted and overwhelmed; and things weren’t getting any better. So Leo and his wife gathered a group of volunteers. They cleaned the house, cooked dinner, did laundry, bathed children, and helped with homework. The sicker Sharon got, the more tasks they took over. When Sharon’s condition became so bad that she required specialized medical equipment to keep her alive, they even raised the funds to buy that equipment after the government denied their requests for help. Every year since, they have raised the money to pay for her care, which eventually was more than $70,000 a year.

Sharon survived to see all five children graduate from high school, two graduate from college, and one get married. For more than 20 years, scores of people contributed time and money to keep Sharon alive and in her home – and to keep her family afloat, together, and healthy. Over the years, people have asked Quentin whether he ever prayed for a miracle. He always says the same thing. “I did pray for a miracle; and God sent one. All the wonderful people who answered my call for help – they are my miracle.”

Are you between a rock and a hard place right now? Remember what Moses said: “Don’t be afraid. The Lord will fight for you.” Keep praying… and keep trusting… and be alert. God’s help may not come in the way that you expect it; but God will help. After all, if God can part a sea, lead an entire people to safety, and eliminate a whole army, God can do the same thing for you!