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A Dead End

  • Writer: Stephen Orr
    Stephen Orr
  • Sep 24
  • 2 min read

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection)


A dead end can be a negative or a positive, depending on your viewpoint. But when you come upon one unexpectedly, it can mean real trouble. 

 

Whatever you call it—caving, spelunking … crazy—exploring under the earth just draws some people. My friend and I were two of those people. We started out walking. Then we had to crouch a bit. Soon enough, we were crawling on all fours. All of this to find the rumored “crystal cave.”

 

And always moving on a slight decline. 

 

In time, the tunnel dimensions grew tight. We were completely flat. We had lost the ability to turn over on our backs. There was only enough ceiling height for us and our gear. 

 

We eventually found ourselves at a juncture. Left? Right? Like many of life’s choices, the two tunnels bore no sign to indicate the best choice. For no particular reason, we chose the left tunnel. We expected more decline and got excited when the tunnel turned even more downward—until we came to the wall.

 

Dead end. 

 

So there we were, one in front of the other, heads down, feet up. At this point, the tunnel was too tight for us to turn around. We hadn't found the crystal cave. We couldn't go forward. We were out of options. 

 

We just wanted to give up. 

 

Are you feeling that? The claustrophobia? That sense of failure? No room to maneuver? Nowhere to turn? Stuck between a rock and a hard place?

 

Tzoros is the Hebrew word for this situation. It's the word for trouble. But not just any run-of-the-mill trouble. It means dire straitsnowhere to turn, between a rock and a hard place, no room to maneuver, out of options, no margin.

 

That's the word in this week's Psalm 91 passage where God says, "Those who love me…I will be with them in trouble [tzoros].”

 

More often than not, we don’t see tzoros coming. Whether we expect it or are caught off guard, what a difference it makes to not be alone! My friend and I were able to discuss our situation, cheer each other up, and crawl backward to that earlier junction. It took a little longer, but our wrong turn helped us know which was the right turn. And taking that other tunnel led us to the crystal cave (which was breathtakingly beautiful and well worth all the trouble). 

 

In “Traveling Mercies,” Anne Lamott writes: "This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. It goes down into the rat hole with us…and there it swells and comforts. It gives us second winds, third winds, hundredth winds." 


That is God's response to no margin, to dire straits, to "out of options," to trouble so bad it needs a special word to describe it. God knows when we are in tzoros and will be with us in it. God goes down into it with us. God meets us at the dead end—even if we’ve been there before! 


No matter how much tzoros, God's expansive (and expanding) love truly can conquer all.

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