A Nowhere Place

In August 2006, I wrote a post about a certain pastor whose sermons often speak directly into my life. As you know (if you've been reading the blog carefully), I've been struggling with major life decisions: where to live, where to work, how proactive to be, how much to wait and let God provide...

A couple days ago, I realized I hadn't been listening to many sermons online--mostly because I can now go to church every week, unlike in France. Anyway, I took a walk down to where I could look out over the ocean from a high point, and listened to a sermon. The topic was Jacob's encounter with God at Beth-El, what is more colloquially known as "Jacob's Ladder." Toward the end of the sermon, as the pastor started into the "application" section of the talk, he said this:

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I think that some of you may need to be reminded that the grace of God can transform the place that you are in right now, just like it does with Jacob.

Some of you are feeling like Jacob. Maybe you’re in a nowhere place in your life right now. You’re in that transition place, a nowhere place. Maybe you’re in between jobs, for instance. Or maybe you’re entering into retirement, and you’re trying to figure out what that place looks like. Maybe you’re in between homes. You’ve moved and you’re not into the new home yet. A nowhere place. Or maybe you’re in between relationships.

What ever it is, you are in that place that feels like a nowhere place. A transition time. And it feels vulnerable. Everything feels nebulous. You can’t get a handle on things. And what you want to do, is you want make that vulnerable, dependent place to go away. You want that feeling to just go away. You want to find something solid. I just want to encourage you this morning that God’s presence can transform that place in your life. That God is in the business of coming to people in that place, in that nowhere place, and bringing about grace.

Maybe you, because of the nebulousness and the vulnerability, you actually might be in the best place to hear from God right now. So I would encourage you, rather than trying to get out of that place as quickly as you can, to just wait. To listen. To ask, “God what do you want to show me in this nowhere place?”

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While listening, I knew that God was affirming my decision not to take the "restaurant job" I mentioned in an earlier post. I need to stop trying to make things happen, and find my security in this nowhere place.