Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Reader, I write to you from a particularly tough spot in life. You’ve lived through a similar chapter at some point, I am sure.

The chapter goes something like this: your trek down a new path begins on a promising note; you welcome lessons and trials because they all point toward some greater thing; just when you find your rhythm, a harsh turn appears in the path leading to a dense mass of fog. People you once counted as friends reveal themselves to be indifferent or – heartbreakingly worse – foes. You doubt yourself and your future. It’s all unnerving and renders you untethered.

There have been precise moments in these foggy chapters of my life that have reawakened core parts of myself that had become buried by busyness and striving. These moments are sharp, intensely personal, and reveal a vibrancy I’d dulled or strike a chord I’d long forgotten. The idea of these personal moments is not a novel concept, I know. Call it an affirmation, the universe speaking, or a God wink, it’s an experience shared by many.

There’ve been many moments of affirmation in this current season. Little reminders that my faith is still there, my instincts can still be trusted, I’ll never regret doing the right thing.

I realize you and I may not share the same worldview or belief in faith, but perhaps you will be encouraged by a recent experience I had full of affirmations.

I’d gone to the Midwest to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend not long ago, and we decided to visit a local church. The church was one that most definitely would be profiled by The Babylon Bee as a church with a fog machine, preacher wearing sneakers, and a designer coffee bar in the lobby. It was a bit out of our comfort zone, but we continued in past the coffee bar, Instagram backdrops, and several possible NFL players.  

When we took our seats, the band was in the midst of playing (loudly) a song neither my friend nor I knew, so we just sorta bopped along awkwardly as you do. And then I had one of those aforementioned moments. The screen filled with lyrics to a song that meant so much to me during a really hard season – maybe the last of the foggy days before this stretch of foggy days – and it was as though God said, “I see you, and I won’t let you go.” I couldn’t help by cry those big streak-down-your-face-and-wash-off-your-eyeliner tears. But it was dark and there may have been fog, so.

Then a woman shared announcements and casually referenced a verse I have clung to since high school – Jeremiah 29:11. And the pastor beautifully spoke of work, specifically hard times in your work, as his sermon topic. My friend leaned over and whispered, “I think this sermon is for you.”

I don’t know what you’re going through or what songs or jokes or memories remind you of how spectacular you are, but I hope you – and I – have those God wink moments in spades during this season of life because, dang, is this a hard season.

Photo taken by yours truly in Northern Ireland. That’s the gorgeous Antrim Coast. You should go!