Have you ever been between a rock and a hard place? Have you prayed and healing was slow to come? Have you needed financial help that did not materialize? Have you ever been unemployed with no job prospects in sight? Have family issues taken you to the edge of the cliff? Life brings its challenges!

Following my college graduation in 1978, Lori and I moved to Gadsden, Alabama where I took a public relations job with United Way. I became a youth pastor at my fathers-in-law’s church—an unpaid position. Also, we were able to live near my in-laws. A short time later, after necessary cutbacks, I lost that job and subsequently could not find new employment. Not even Beebo’s, a local car wash, would hire me, citing over-qualification! Later, our electricity was turned off and we literally sat in the dark for two days. I truly knew in my heart that God was going to intervene. However, we still sat in the dark. 

Initially, I became angry and staged a pity party. I was a sight to behold! Feeling sorry for myself and an overall bad attitude kept me in tears. I cried, “Lord, you failed me.” I sounded much like the Israelites when backed up against the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit. Let’s go to Exodus 14 to get a background scoop. 

1 Then the LORD said to Moses,

2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon.

3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this.

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!”

6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.

7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.

8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.

9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.

11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.

They said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did you bring us out here in the desert to die” (Exodus 14:11)? 

Gadsden, Alabama is a wonderful city, but my two years there were characterized by lack and hard times. It seemed that nothing worked out. The more I prayed, the more difficult things became. To this day, I have difficulty even driving by the city! After all these years, I still do not understand why 1978-80 were lean, difficult years. The only good thing that came out of those trying days was the birth of our oldest daughter. Even then, the enemy tried to kill both her and my wife during a very traumatic delivery. 

Admittedly, I allowed anger to fester in my soul. I loved the Lord but was mad at Him. I felt that He let me down. What appeared to be a blessing by moving to Gadsden became one of the greatest challenges of my life. That’s why, to this day, I read the Israelites’ Red Sea encounter with mixed emotions. The nation’s great deliverance from Egypt, soon turned into a logistical nightmare. From their perspective, disaster was imminent. They were backed up against the Red Sea with no escape in sight. Gadsden represents my “Red Sea”. After four years of college, God chose to enroll me in His “School of Hard Knocks.” And I was not ready. My heart was proud and my spirit perplexed.

What do you do when nothing, and I mean nothing works out? When things go from bad to worse. In retrospect, here’s what I suggest, even though at the time I was too spiritually immature to understand. By the way, these ten suggestions are easier said than done, but it seems that experience remains our best teacher. I provide these with a heart full of love. 

1. Keep praying. Ask the Lord to continually search your heart and expose any wickedness. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

2. Repent of any hidden sins. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).

3. Keep in mind that what you’re going through, you’re going through! “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

4. Gather a prayer support group around you. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).

5. Don’t allow others’ opinions to pull you down. No one needs a “Job’s comforter” when life is overwhelming. According to episodes in the book of Job, three friends  - Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – attempt to comfort him but only add to his misery. Be careful who you tell what! With friends like that, we don’t need enemies!

6. Stay around God’s people and God’s house. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).

7. Avoid feeling sorry for yourself. Faith does not attend pity parties! “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).