“We need to make some changes here. Your position is no longer going to be required.” I don't know if you have ever heard those words spoken to you. I have! Quite a number of years ago, I sat in complete shock as my General Manager delivered the news to me that I was being “fired”. What had been a great career, in the industry I had grown up in, quickly evaporated in front of me. I went home devastated.
There is much I could share about this very real, painful….and yet beautiful… story. God profoundly allowed this experience to reshape a leadership career that I had unknowingly built upon much self-sufficiency and my own capacity to “make things happen”. God had some significant things for me to learn. He provided me with a “Red Sea” experience.
Resonating with Exodus 14:5 – 31 NLT we can find ourselves in situations where there is no apparent way out, no answer or no obvious solution. Moses and the Israelites…. with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians pressing in from behind…. had absolutely nowhere to go, no trick up their sleeve and no quick fix. This was it. Unless God did something, they would perish.
At some point in your life, in all likelihood, you will also encounter the “Red Sea”. Business owner & leader…what will you do? How will you respond? As the Israelites had, you have two options. You can despair and give up Exodus 14:10-12 NLT or you can choose as Moses did; inviting his people to not give in to fear, trusting that the Lord would rescue them that day. Exodus 14: 13- 14 NLT
When I was fired, my world was so fundamentally and totally turned upside down. I was so very afraid, my identity so shaken, my sense of being in-control no longer trustworthy. With my sweetheart at home, with 4 small children, with a mortgage and more…. I was truly facing my own “Red Sea” story.
While these emotions battled within me, there were 3 crucial realities in my life which sustained hope while I went through this process. My prayer is that these, too, will help sustain you in your own “Red Sea”.
3 Realities To Help Face The Red Sea In Your Life:
- God is Sovereign. Over the years, I had been helped and trained to live life under the reality that God is in charge and I am not. In spite of the reasons why I was fired, I fundamentally and deeply knew that God was in charge. I could trust Him. Jeremiah 32:17 NIV
- Soak In His Word. I knew that I couldn't trust my emotions to anchor me. I stayed grounded in the hope and reality of His holy spirit ministering to my soul by staying in His word and subsequently maintaining God’s perspective. Psalm 119:105 NLT
- You Will Need Help From Your Friends. My close friends knew I was in trouble. I needed them and they brought much needed encouragement. We spent much time together as I experienced God walking with me through my ‘Red Sea’. Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT
Annie Johnson Flint’s (1866-1932) poem is a helpful reflection for you and me.
“Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where, in spite of all you can do,
There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?
Then wait on the Lord, with a trust serene,
Till the night of your fear is gone;
He will send the winds, He will heap the floods,
When He says to your soul,
"Go And His Hand shall lead you through, clear through,
Ere the watery walls roll down;
No wave can touch you, no foe can smite,
No mightiest sea can drown.
The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break,
But over their bed you shall walk dry-shod
In the path that your Lord shall make.
In the morning watch, 'neath the lifted cloud,
You shall see but the Lord alone,
When He leads you forth from the place of the sea,
And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed,
You shall no more be afraid;
You shall sing His praise in a better place,
In a place that His Hand hath made.”
When you face the “Red Sea”, what will you do?
A Deliberate Application:
- Have you faced a “Red Sea” in your life?
- How did God meet you in the midst of it?
- Will your understanding of His sovereignty, His word and community be enough to anchor and sustain you?
- Who will you share this with?
