Have you ever hard the statement “I’m between a rock and a hard place”? I looked around to see other thoughts on what it means and found that it means exactly what I was thinking; the dilemma of being in a position where one is faced with two equally unwelcome options appears to lie deep in the human psyche. Language always reflects people’s preoccupations and there are several phrases that express this predicament. The first of these quite literally conveys the uncomfortable nature of the choice between two choices you would rather not make.Other phrases that compare two less than desirable alternatives are ‘the lesser of two evils’, and ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea. Songs have been written about the subject, and there are some pretty deep lyrics, such as one written by Mick Jagger, The fields of Eden are full of trash and if we beg and we borrow and steal we’ll never get it back. People are hungry, they crowd around and the city gets bigger as the country comes begging to town. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I dare say that most of us find at least one situation like that most every day and confusion sets in and we don’t know which way to turn.
In the Bible we find several people faced with hard choices. I wonder if Moses must have thought, “Should I remain a Prince in line for the throne of Pharaoh, or go lead my people, the Hebrews?” Abraham had to choose to stay in his home with all of his possessions or journey to a far away land where he would be a stranger because he had heard a call from God. Ruth was a Moabite that sojourned to a foreign land after the death of her husband with her mother-in-law and stayed, probably under the stares and gossip of the local women at the well. Esther took her life in her hands to go into the King and plead for her people when she could have chosen to remain in her chambers with beautiful clothes, plenty of food and servants to wait on her. There were other choices where right and wrong was clearly marked but a decision had to be made, Peter made the choice to deny Jesus, to His face, because he feared for his life, and Judas who chose a purse with thirty pieces of silver in it in exchange for the life of Jesus. We know how that ended, Judas’ guilt made him hang himself. But think of the choice that Jesus had to make while kneeling at the rock in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew 26:39-42 He fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” He had to make the choice of suffering a torturous death rather than returning to His life in the heavenlies with His Father God, or to die and save our souls for all eternity.
In your personal life are your choices hard or easy? Probably the former, so my advice would be to make no choices without much prayer!
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