Tight Places

 Pastor and author Thom Gardner tells the story of the day he was called to the hospital as a result of his daughter's auto accident. The initial information indicated it wasn't serious but when he arrived at the scene  he learned that 1 person had been killed and 3 others, including his daughter, were badly injured and had been airlifted to a hospital 60 miles away. Gardner relates how through the next 60 hours he and his wife were numb with shock and desolate in spirit. He wanted to be a rock of strength, but he wasn't. When they finally saw their daughter, they were devastated by the extent of her injuries. She was expected to recover but faced a long and painful healing process. He writes that he was filled with the same questions as we would be. How could He allow this to happen? Why has it happened? We've been faithful, where were You? Where are You? Where is Your faithfulness?

Eventually he needed to come to grips with it all and wrote, "We humans are always trying to make sense of things in order to gain some kind of control over our lives. I am convinced that all of us waste so much energy trying to understand things that are not meant to be understood. To make sense out of the nonsensical." 

He went to the junkyard where his daughter's car had been taken. It was destroyed, but as he looked at the driver's area of the car he was amazed at how the entire front of the car had collapsed in on it. There was only a tiny space there. He wondered how she was not crushed and killed instantly. The Lord then whispered into his heart these words; I am abundantly available in tight places. 

They came from an interpretation he'd come across from Psalm 46:1. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. The original Hebrew translates, I am the God who is abundantly available in tight places. God then opened his heart to see how He had been so to his daughter from the very first. From the first responders through the paramedics and to the ER Doctors and nurses and surgeons who performed her surgery. He was made to see what we so often question about the goodness and faithfulness of God. That He is totally good and totally faithful.

We live in a fallen world. Evil is real and it is here. We have never been promised exclusion from its consequences. What we have been promised is His Presence and Person in the midst of all of it. He is a very present help in trouble and abundantly available in the tightest places of that trouble. He is Immanuel, with us in every way. 

Trouble comes in this world. It's part of what we call life. None are exempt and there will be many tight places. Trust Him. Discover that He will be and is abundantly available in all your tight places. Stop struggling to make sense of it all. Be still and know that He is God. Listen for His whisper. Look for His face. As Gardner writes, "The tighter the place the more abundant He is." Trust Him to prove to you the truth of that.

Blessings,
Pastor O