Hopelessness, powerless, out of your control - no one wants to feel this way. Sometimes our circumstances seem dire and dismal. And that is exactly when it might be time to surrender. Not to raise the white flag to an enemy, but your arms up to your heavenly Father. He has a plan and purpose for all of us; sometimes, it takes us to a place we'd only go to if we gave it to Him in surrender.

Too often, we want to step in and get in the way of God's work. We want to fix problems that aren't ours to fix. When we surrender to His will and let God be God, amazing things can happen.

Today's podcast walks through a hopeless situation where God clearly spoke to get out of HIs way and then promised, "Watch what I do with her!"

Lessons from this episode:

1. Surrender
2. Choose God's will, not yours
3. Trust His Word - He is a promise keeper - He's got a plan!
4. Stay close to Him and believe His promises

A beautiful song about how God is in all of our stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83lLHqxi1-8 God is in the Story

Gift of Hope

https://www.dianebelz.com/hope-station-journal

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Harriet, story, people, God, life, hopeless situation, surrender, Alzheimer, friends,

SPEAKERS

Diane Belz

Diane Belz

If it's not your fight, listen to the other side of the story.

Diane Belz

When do you feel most hopeless? For me, my hopeless meter rises to very high levels, when there's someone that I love who's going through a struggle, a problem that I want to jump in and fix. Yet I know it's not my fight. And I need to listen to the other side of the story.

Diane Belz

When I love someone, I believe there's only one side and not their side. And I take a critical character in that story out of the story, or I decide I am going to take that role in this story that belongs to Him.

Diane Belz

Today, I'm going to share with you a hopeless situation that I encountered with my best Floridian friend, Harriet. Harriet and I became fast friends when we met at a program through our church called My Freedom. I loved the name of that. And Harriet and I were both searching for freedom as she moved east from Texas, and I moved south from New Jersey. Harriet and I were seated at the same table. And during this program, we shared one another's lives, and we had things in common. Harriet was a widow, I was a widow, we had lost the love of our lives, and we're trying to rebuild a new life here in Florida. Harriet and I committed to attending a seven week program that would continue the my freedom journey. We both loved that word. She liked doing things her way. And I like doing things my way. And even though there is a pretty large age gap, Harriet recently turned 90 and I'm in my mid 60s.

Diane Belz

Gosh, we became really good friends, we would attend the same service, we would go out to lunch together, we would attend different events within the church. And she became a rock to me.

Diane Belz

She was so encouraging, so inspiring me. She poured love into me and I poured love into her. And it was something that we both needed a really sweet friendship. We both started volunteering in the church. Harriet served in the front of the house and I was at the back of the house. She was a greeter helped and with the infant baby room. I was doing administrative work for one of the pastors. We just loved the connections that we were making. We love sharing our faith, sharing our life stories, sharing our ups and downs and the challenges that we had.

Diane Belz

One of the major challenges that Harriet was having is that she needed to find a new place to live. She thought she had more time. But she didn't. She needed to leave the home that she was living in within four days. Four days is tough to do. Her and her son had been looking for alternative living places. And you all know how hot the temperature is in Florida. Well, the housing market, the apartment market, the Senior Living market is also very hot. So it's hard to get where you want to go without waiting. Without long list of other people vying for that same space.

Diane Belz

So Harriet needed to be patient, but she was running out of time. And what she was offered was a spot in an assisted living place. But the primary residences there had Alzheimer's. Harriet is vibrant, she's alive. She's witty, she's smart, very smart. She has a memory to beat the band. She has stories that she doesn't lose a beat when she's telling. Both my mother and my father had dementia and Alzheimer's so I know the signs and Harriet has none of those.

Diane Belz

She worked up until her 89th birthday. Before she came to Florida. She had even passed the test to become a beautician in the state of Florida because she wanted to continue to work and she received a 94. After taking a four hour test. She was smart. She had it all together and during this transition, I could just see that she with losing hope.

Diane Belz

She knew she was losing freedoms, she was living losing options. She thought this is not the way I plan to live out my life. And here she was in this hopeless situation. What really hurt my heart is that in some of the locations that she was moving to, it would have been almost an hour and a half drive to our church. She said, I don't think I'm going to be able to continue to, to attend here at this location.

Diane Belz

I really didn't want to lose this friendship. And I promised her I would come and pick her up every single week, even if it meant that it was a three hour journey for me. That's how important this friendship was. The last time we met in church, she said, this will probably be the last time that I'll be here. Because I have to start attending somewhere else. And she was looking for other locations.

Diane Belz

Diane Belz

Well, someone was taking care of that plan. And that plan was that as I was walking in from the front of the church, Harriet was walking in through the side. I don't believe in coincidences. I just believe that God's hand is all over this story.

Diane Belz

So as we met, almost collided, I was so excited. It was like I hadn't seen her in months. You know that expectation and excitement you get when you thought someone wasn't going to show up. And then they do. That's how I felt my heart was just swelling. I was so excited to see her. And then I was so disappointed when I just knew that she was really struggling at the new place she was living, you could just see the struggle she wasn't sleeping well, was all topsy turvy, her nights and days, not due to her sleeping patterns, but the sleeping patterns of the people and the home that she was living in.

Diane Belz

She started to tell me part of the story. And I was just angry. I just thought this is so unfair. She's done so much. She's lived so much. She's given so much. She should not have to live in this circumstance and situation. Her son and her we're continuing to find places. But this is where she had to be for right now. I wanted to offer encouragement, but I really didn't want to. I wanted to fight the system, fight something. I don't know who I was going to fight but I was ready to fight.

Diane Belz

When we went into the sanctuary. Just sitting down there listening to the service, all I can think about is like I have to fix this. I need to fix this. She should not be in this hopeless situation. And I would hear this voice say, "This is not your fight. Listen to the other side of the story."

Diane Belz

Right. Rather than listening to that word, I decided I was just going to Google alternatives looking for different apartments doing everything. Instead of going to the big G O D, I wanted the little g and Google when they're laid like to put them as a capital G.

Diane Belz

And I'm just thinking like, how often do I do this? How often do I search outside of God for answers. And whenever I do that, I feel absolutely hopeless. And this is how I was feeling in church. Instead of focusing on the Sermon on the services on Harriet. I was focusing on googling. And again, I heard that voice say, "this is not your fight. Listen to the other side of the story."

Diane Belz

Finally, the service was over and they were doing an altar call if anyone wanted prayer, and I recommend it to Harriet that she go up and pray.

Diane Belz

And I'm like, Lord, I don't know what to do. And He told me one more time, "this is not your fight. Listen to the other side of the story."

Diane Belz

Gratefully I heard the other side of the story and there is always another side of the story. We just don't see it especially when someone we love is struggling. When someone we love is in a hopeless situation and we feel like we can step in and take their life, their matters into our hands.

Diane Belz

And most of the time it ends up less than an advantageous situation. I listened that she was telling the story about her son and the places that they had visited and their hopes that she could live in this one location. She said It just felt perfect. She was telling me where it was located. And it sounded great. But she still wasn't able to move yet.

Diane Belz

I listened to the other side. I knew it was not my fight, I calmed down. And as I was driving Harriet back to the church, I heard this still voice this quiet voice say, 'watch what I do with her."

Diane Belz

I'm going, Okay, I'm gonna zip that and keep that a secret because the other voice was so loud and proud. And this one seemed rather quiet. But it gave me hope that God was planning to do something in Harriet's life.

Diane Belz

And sometimes when we think that way, we think it's supposed to be so great, like, some amazing miracles going to be happening. And most times, God's just going to steer us in the right direction. So I had a month long vacation, and I hadn't seen Harriet, she had moved into a new location, but she still wasn't happy. Letting go of freedom was very hard. Because for her to get into this new place where she's now residing, she had to give up her car. And that just didn't feel right.

Diane Belz

For the first time, this very independent woman who had been running her own business, taking care of herself, her children, her husbands, she had four of them, her family members, anyone who needed it. Harriet was the go to person, she was the strength, the one that people relied upon. And now at the age of 90, she had to be relying on other people.

Diane Belz

She was lucky enough to make that announcement during one of our prayer services and people were volunteering, we'll pick you up what time do you need to get? We'll take you home, what do you what do you need to she had people who lived closer to her who were willing to do everything necessary. When I called and told her that I had safely made it back to Florida, she says, Well, you need to come over to my apartment, I want to show it to you. And my guess is you need to have your hair colored. I want to start coloring it for you. And you're going to need a haircut.

Diane Belz

So she was just excited to see me. I was excited to see her. And I just felt like someone had turned the light off of Harriet. Harriet, wasn't back to Harriet, she was still struggling with where she was why she was there. And she was shoulding, coulding, woulding herself into a frenzy a time. You can just see that the desperation and just a distress from this situation.

Diane Belz

So I was trying to encourage her. That's my gift. I was trying to encourage her both emotionally, and spiritually. And I just asked, I said, "Why do you think God has you here?" I love all the places that He could place you. If we believe totally in His providence, why do you think that you're here?"

Diane Belz

She says I keep on digging into the Bible hoping for an answer. And I haven't found it yet. A couple of weeks later, I visited her and I can see some improvements. We been sitting out in the lobby and Harriet was holding court, which was very much what my husband Joe would do. People would come in, they would be excited to see her. I was watching her face and I said Harriet, "I think your light starting to come back a little bit." She knew everybody's name. She knew everybody's story. And she had these funny anecdotes about her new friends that she was making within the facility. She wanted to introduce me to everyone. And she was very pleased when people would say is that your daughter? She would say I wish but she's my best friend. She's just such an adorable soul.

Diane Belz

So a couple weeks later, we're into the end of September.

Diane Belz

And hurricane Ian was knocked knock knocking on Florida's door.

Diane Belz

The facility that she was in said we need to move everyone because the eye of the storm was supposed to be hitting her area. And her director of that facility was a leader in charge of difficult times, moved hundreds of elderly residents to a new location that they were sleeping in hallways. She had all hands on deck. every employee, every family member every pet was allowed to come into the facility so that they could take care of these residents who had been moved.

Diane Belz

And I know from my own parents, my mother had Alzheimer's and my dad dementia that when we made any little changes the impact that it had on their emotional and mental state and I can imagine I'm moving hundreds of people in this age range who also might have had dementia and Alzheimer's. I know how hard it was for me to make a change, especially in the midst of this hurricane. That was very challenging.

Diane Belz

So the day before the hurricane I called Harriet, at our new facility, I said, How are things going and I go, Wait a minute, it sounds like a party is happening there. She said it is there's dancing, there's some alcoholic beverages, little cups of wine. She's not a drinker. She didn't have any but you could hear there is cheerfulness in her voice, like wait a minute, this is like crazy times.

Diane Belz

And she went from feeling hopeless to cheerfulness coming back in. And part of that cheerfulness came because Harriet had a purpose. She had two neighbors aligned in the hallway on cots that were deaf. They weren't aware of when dinner Lunch and Breakfast was going to be served or even where the location was. Harriet made sure that her neighbor residents got to where they needed to be. When some of the employees had their their dogs and their kids. She was pet sitting, she was babysitting. She was also being a source of encouragement for everyone working there telling them how much she appreciated the efforts that they were going through. She was complimenting the leadership of the director saying, This is amazing what you've been able to do, I feel safe, I feel protected, you are working 24/7 I am so happy that God put me in this place that I'm living, even this temporary location that she was with because she believed in the director and what she was doing.

Diane Belz

The director noticed, if you've ever been in a place with a bunch of people, I don't care if they're older, young, a lot of complaining can happen. Harriet was doing the exact opposite. She was offering encouragement. She was offering hope she was offering love. She was offering stories she was offering any help that she could possibly give. And she was rewarded for that.

Diane Belz

See, Harriet had an opportunity, because of the goodness of what she was doing. To have a chair in the facility's beauty salon. Harriet was back in action. She just loved the idea of being able to take care of people again. She said I can just pour into them. They are in the last stages of their life. What if they don't believe in Jesus, they need to hear about Him.

Diane Belz

If they need to come to our church, we need to make sure that they can get there. I just want to give them hope. I want to give them love. And I want to give them a really nice hairdo. So she's coloring and she's cutting and she's perming. And she's setting and she's doing all of this at the age of 90. And I look back and I just am so delighted in the message that the Lord was giving to me.

Diane Belz

You just need to stop. This isn't your fight. There is another side of the story.

Diane Belz

And the other side of the story was His story. His story that he wanted to play through Harriet. He was doing great things with her. She has a pep in her step and an excitement that is an impossible for most people at any age. And at the age of 90. Harriet continues to live on purpose.

Diane Belz

So some of the lessons that I learned from this story are hard for most of us. And they were really hard for Harriet and myself to watch her walk through this.

Diane Belz

The first is really surrendering. Harriet had to surrender, that she didn't have a choice, she had to have this transition home before she got a more permanent home. I had to surrender, that God had a plan for her that this was not my fight, that there was another side to the story.

Diane Belz

And surrender is tough, but there is such peace when you are able to do that. Trusting in God's will for you. And those that you love and just allowing God to be God.

Diane Belz

Like I can believe in Him for bigger miracles and sometimes in smaller things I really am challenged that God's got His hand in this. And I always think that as long as I can do do something, why am I asking God to do something for me?

Diane Belz

Like He's got better things to do. When I can google and search and see if I can find a quick place for Harriet to live. Now God's like, put it down. But you're phone down, get Google out of this decision making.

Diane Belz

This is between Me and Harriet, and I need you to step out of the way.

Diane Belz

And to know that God is always working in our lives, he does have a plan for us, he does have a purpose for us. And it is for good. He's not trying to harm us. He's trying to help us. And some of that help can be painful. Surrender is painful. Let me tell you, it's painful. Doing God's will can be painful, it can be scary. But He has the whole picture.

Diane Belz

He has the all sides to every story. Every one story, He has all sides too.

Diane Belz

So when I can't see the work that He was doing, and He said, Watch what I do in her life.

Diane Belz

And I'm watching and I'm amazed. Amazed at Harriet and her resilience. Amazing God and His love. And to also know that in her rough time, rather than going with her other resident friends and complaining about her situation, she went deeper into the Word of God.

Diane Belz

And she said, I just feel Him speaking every single day, into my life into the situation. And I am believing and knowing He is doing a good thing in me and through me. She said, I have been stubborn my whole life. I needed to get my wings clipped, I needed to stop being dependent on Harriet, and be dependent on my Father.

Diane Belz

I love it.

Diane Belz

We are never too old to work. We're never too old to live on purpose. We are never too old to surrender to God. We're never too old. And if we realize that, because there are times when I'm thinking, Ah, it's over for me. I'm done. There is nothing left. And then I look at Harriet, and she is such a beautiful and powerful story of faith, love, and hope and action.

Diane Belz

So what are some of the hopeless situations that you have in your life? Are you willing to surrender the situation? The circumstance, this person, this problem? Are you willing to allow God to be God? Doing His work and His timing His way? Do you believe that God has a purpose and plan for you?

Diane Belz

He just needs you to let go so He can do the work that He's calling you to do? Do you believe that He's working in front of you that He's holding you up that He has something amazing for you? If you would just surrender to His will? Are you willing to stay close to God like Harriet did, diving into the Bible and just hearing His truth being spoken into your life? If you're willing to do that, there is hope for you during this difficult time in any situation, because God is always good. Harriet learned that lesson.

Diane Belz

I've learned that lesson. And I am so delightful and so blessed that He is willing to speak into my heart to speak into Harriet's heart, and that we just want to be faithful daughters that when our day is called and our life has ended that we will hear those beautiful words. This is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.

Diane Belz

I can't think of a better way to live out the rest of my life. And I am so grateful that I have an example in my friend Harriet.