Readings for today: Exodus 12:14-13:16, Matthew 20:29-21:22, Psalms 25:16-22, Proverbs 6:12-15
Have you ever felt like you’ve hit rock bottom? You’ve exhausted all your resources. Worn out all your connections. Come to the end of all your strength. You have no moves left to make. No options left to consider. All the doors seem closed. Strangely enough, it’s a good place to be. When we finally come to the end of ourselves, we are ready to turn to God.
Pharaoh hit rock bottom. He stood by and watched as plague after plague devastated his country. He hardened his heart when the Nile turned to blood. He steeled his resolve when the flies, frogs, and locusts swarmed. He refused to yield in the face of fiery hail and a three-day eclipse of the sun. Finally, the firstborn in every single home in Egypt are killed in a single night. The cries of grief and pain rise up throughout the land. The angel of death even visits the palace. His own child dies in his arms. He finally breaks. He relents and lets God’s people go.
Where were you when you hit rock bottom? What did it look like? How did it feel? I’ve hit rock bottom multiple times in my life. The first was on the campus of the University of Colorado. I was drinking too much. Skipping class. Flushing my tuition down the toilet. Rock bottom came in the form of a letter from the school letting me know I would not be invited back for the fall semester. I had flunked out. I was a failure. All my hopes and dreams came crashing down around me. I broke. I relented. I surrendered to God.
I hit rock bottom a second time in Sun Prairie, WI. I went there to plant a church. I had everything I needed. Plenty of money. A new, rapidly growing community. A vision and a heart to reach lost people. But I got crossways with the board. Sharp disagreements theologically and methodologically doomed the work from the start. I did not respond well. I fell into a depression. I turned inward. I withdrew. The church plant imploded. I was a failure. All my hopes and dreams came crashing down again. I broke. I relented. I surrendered to God.
I don’t know where life finds you today. Perhaps you feel like you’re approaching rock bottom. Perhaps you feel like you’re already there. Maybe you feel like you’ve been there a long time and can’t seem to find your way out. My encouragement? Let your heart break. Let go of your will and your way. Surrender to God.
God loves it when we hit rock bottom. In fact, I believe that’s where God likes to hang out. He loves to meet us in those spaces where we feel so overwhelmed. So helpless. So hopeless. So lost and alone. It is there that God does His best work. It is there that we are at our most humble. Most open. Most willing to obey. Don’t make the same mistake I made or the same mistake Pharaoh made. Don’t harden your heart. Don’t steel your resolve. Don’t tighten your grip. Let go and let God. He stands ready to help those who turn to Him.
Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalms 26, Proverbs 6:16-19