Then the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go east and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. The Kerith brook will give you fresh water to drink and I’ve commanded ravens to bring you food there every day.’ So Elijah obeyed what the Lord said to do. He moved to the Kerith Ravine and lived there. The birds brought him food each morning and evening and he drank from the brook. But after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain.
1 Kings 17:2-7
Has God ever made you a promise, you obeyed, and then suddenly everything he promised you seems to be disappearing? Yeah, been there. In fact, I’ve been there a few times. But my most intimate experience with the brook drying up happened back in December of 2014. But first, you need a little backstory.
You see, my husband and I had made a nice little life for ourselves in Charlotte, NC. We both had good jobs, we were living in a great house that we were considering buying, and Life Seemed Grand. But then, suddenly, everything changed with one phone call.
Football has always been A Big Deal in the Hodges house. Shortly after we said I Do, my husband was set to graduate from UGA with his Master’s in Sports Administration. But first, he needed an internship. When every plan we had in place fell through, his last-minute scramble resulted in an internship that would ultimately change the course our lives. We up and moved on a week’s notice from Athens, GA and we soon settled into our new home in Charlotte. Jonathan was working by day and volunteering as a positions coach for JCSU by night. A passion so deep he did it for free. For years.
But one fateful Tuesday afternoon in 2012, Jonathan got a call that would change our lives. The football coaching dream now a reality, we left our big life in Charlotte for a little NC town. Everything Seemed Perfect. The job supported us both. We were offered a darling little country house for next to nothing. And the school provided pretty much everything we ever needed.
Until that gloomy December morning in 2014 when the brook dried up. As it happens with football, my husband’s contract wasn’t renewed. Our whole lives depended on that job. Everything we had. Everything we needed. All of it. Just like that, gone.
I’ll tell you this, there isn’t a fear more real than losing everything. I’ve always been a believer, but it wasn’t ever in my nature to rely first on God. It just wasn’t. But when I opened the door that December morning to find my husband, eyes rimmed red, I knew I couldn’t get through that season of our lives on my own. So, I handed it over to God. A few weeks later, still thick in the unknown, I started to listen to the Rick Warren Daily Hope podcast. And the very first episode I listened to was all about the brook drying up.
You want to talk about the power of a timely message, there it was. As I walked around a campus that was no longer going to be my home, my safe haven, Rick Warren shared his insights.
God often dries up the brook in your life to keep you from depending on the brook instead of him, to move you to a better place, to prove he has not forgotten you.
Years later, looking back, I understand now. Our lives changed radically because of that loss. We moved. I went back to work full-time. We found our way back to church, God now at the center of our lives. If it weren’t for that loss, I can’t be certain I would have ever started my own company. If it weren’t for that loss, I can’t be sure we’d have the lives we have now.
It doesn’t take the sting of the pain out of the moment, but the brook drying up was ultimately the best thing that could have ever happened to us. It changed us. It changed our marriage. It changed our relationship with Christ.
It’s hard to hold onto hope when things feel hopeless. Trust me, I know. But I promise you that God is using the things that are causing you so much pain right now to move you, to change you, to build a path to a better life.
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