I live in the middle of the third largest Amish community in the United States. Driving in our area requires a certain level of acquired proficiency. Slow-moving horse and buggies are plentiful, and maneuvering around them is a skill only the locals know how to do. Only out-of-towners actually follow a buggy until the dotted yellow shows up. In our neck of the woods, passing buggies is an accepted practice, even when the rules say, “Do Not Pass.”
Which makes driving behind a buggy and in front of a cop car like being stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place.
This is where I found myself recently. I gritted my teeth in frustration as my Honda hovered at 2 mph. I just wanted to get through our quaint little town so I could get home in a timely fashion.
Being in tight spots bring dilemmas.
Dilemma # 1: If I passed the buggy as usual, I would be break the law (double yellow all over the place) and I didn’t want to test Mr. Deputy to see if he followed the unwritten rules or was an enforcer of the Real Deal.
Dilemma # 2: If I followed Mr. & Mrs. Amish Neighbor at horse & buggy pace, I would get home in the next millennium. So there I sat, frustrated, trotting along in my horseless carriage. I decided to turn on a side-street to escape the dilemma of to-pass-or-not-to-pass. 
Freedom, at last!
While processing my options, I was reminded that not every rock-and-a-hard-place situation is that easy to get out of. Life hands us complicated situations, and frustration follows when answers to life dilemmas aren’t cut and dry. Rock and Hard Places are difficult moments.
I learned something being behind the buggy. Normally, I would have {safely} passed the buggy on a double yellow, went on my merry way, no big deal. Everyone does it. Sound like life situations? You know what God’s word says, but you recognize the unwritten rules people live by. The “everybody does it, it’s no big deal” unwritten rules. The ones that justify behavior because everyone does it.
I learned something being watched by Mr. Policeman, who personified many things in Rock and Hard places. For me, I didn’t like being watched even though I was obeying the law. I was afraid of being pulled over and felt the 
peering, judging eyes of someone behind me.
Can you relate to that? Sometimes hard situations become more complicated because we feel the eyes of judgment behind us, even when obediently walking with God. I’ve lived in those places, where judgment and scorn peered at me though I was doing what God called me to do. In those moments, I’ve learned to cling to the Truth God provides, resting in the knowledge I’m being obedient to Him, even though others question it.
There’s freedom in that kind of obedience, even when you feel pinned between a rock and a hard place.
In my Honda, freedom came when I escaped the dilemma of unwritten rules and judgment. I wonder if it’s like that in life, too.
I’m reminded to seek God and obediently walk in God’s will for my life, regardless of how others respond to it. In this, there’s peace.
Even pinned between rocks and hard places, there is freedom.
What areas can obedience bring even greater freedom for you?
And remember, when visiting Amishville, take the side roads.
I love this story so much because I have been right there in your shoes!! It is so weird how you know what you are doing is right until all of a sudden there’s the police car and then you start to doubt everything you are doing!!! I do feel that life in general is like that! When someone starts to question or watch what you are doing just a little more closer than normal, our instinct is to put the doubt or blame on ourselves! Why is that? When you know what you are doing is right! Is it self confidence or lack of? Not sure what it is but I have it!!! LOL