Between a Rock and a Hard Place

“Between a rock and a hard place”. It’s an English language idiom. A turn of phrase that means that someone is caught in between two difficult choices or circumstances.
For the last several years, I’ve asked our team members to sum up their week with one word. I’ll be doing the same today. This word provides a way for us to filter our thoughts and impressions of the trip in a succinct way for the purpose of engaging the “how was it?” questions that we face.

My word will be: “hard”

This week has been great overall. But it has also been hard:
⁃ it was hard for our teams to be unexpectedly and unintentionally working over an hour apart on two different days.
⁃ It always hard to work in outdoor conditions of over 40 degrees.

really large boulder that needed to be removed

⁃ It was hard for some to walk up or down mountain passes  or across unknown fields to your next site.
⁃ It was often hard to dig through sticking dense clay only to find big rocks, and bigger boulders.
⁃ It always hard to step out of your comforts in order to immerse and engage.
⁃ It’s sometimes hard to submit your preferences for the good of the team and the Kingdom mission.

And after 20+ visits and 6 days of this trip, participating in what God is doing, you’d think things would get easier. But it’s still hard:

⁃ it’s hard to see the difficult circumstances that some people face, knowing that our cultural proverb: “ if you work hard enough you’ll be successful”, doesn’t translate to those who work intensely hard for a meal, a roof and a handful of clothes.
⁃ It’s hard to hear some of the stories of hurt, fear and abandonments and remain unchanged.
⁃ It’s hard to ignore the eager desire to work toward a new trajectory for life and be unmotivated in my own.
⁃ It’s hard to miss the opportunity God has given us to speak words of life into a small community and not be humbled by His enablement, and hare to believe the way we are blessed through these God appointed interactions.
⁃ It’s hard to understand that having our some of comforts, fears and emotions exposed reveals places in our lives that the Lord still wants to pour His grace into.

The Shelter team of drivers

⁃ It’s hard to believe that God could use us, knowing all our faults, insecurities and weaknesses, and extend His Kingdom through us.
⁃ It’s hard to conceive that every prayer and every small dollar donated could make such a significant difference in the lives of Salvadorans and Canadians.
⁃ It’s hard to leave, not knowing what will become of these 14 families or this community, yet trusting that Gods good work will be completed.
⁃ It’s hard to leave, our growing and vibrant Shelter family, who give and serve with increasing excellence, to the glory of God. So as we go we encourage, recommission and commit to prayer their ongoing efforts with these and other families in El Salvador.

At the end of Jesus’ most famous sermon, recorded in Matthew 7, he talks about being in a hard place, where rains come down and waters rise. He also talks about a rock, a firm foundation forged through faithfully listening to and responding to Gods truth.



Between a rock and hard place, Jesus says, a home can be built. Between the rock of faithfulness and the hard places of life, struggle and circumstance, safety can be found. We live in the now and not yet of the Unfolding Kingdom of God, between a rock and a hard place where 14 families and 14 Canadians are finding shelter in Jesus.

We were reminded in one of this week’s devotions, Psalm 9:9 (the Message):

“God’s a safe-house for the battered,
    a sanctuary during bad times.
The moment you arrive, you relax;
    you’re never sorry you knocked”

Welcome in, to a world between the rock and the hard place, where Jesus is at work and is inviting us to follow. The choice is ours to make.

-Deve