photo by Jimmy Hemphill: flickr.com/photos/jimmah_v

One of the most misquoted verses of the Christian Bible is 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” (NRSV) 

Usually only a portion of the verse is cited – “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength.” This truncation distorts the verse’s meaning, and unfortunately it leads people to remain in impossible situations never even considering that God may be offering them “the way out.” (Some other translations call it “the way of escape.”) 

I have heard this truncated verse used as a reason for a caregiver to reject in-home care, to avoid considering placing a loved one in a care facility, to go without sleep night after night in order to keep a loved one safe, to reject out of hand any kind of help from other people. “I am a Christian,” they say, “and I know that God won’t test me beyond my strength.” I wonder what the response would be to this question, “Yes, but as a Christian you also believe that God will provide the way out, right? Have you looked for that?” 

While some people are prone to find an escape from caregiving too quickly, I doubt that those folks would be looking at this web site. And this meditation isn’t written for them anyway. Its proper audience is the group of which I am a member, the “natural” caregivers who are prone to feel responsible for too many things, to take on too much for too long, and to feel guilty about asking for help. (After years of therapy I have burned my natural caregiver membership card, but sometimes I still visit the clubhouse.) 

The verse actually calls us as Christians to discernment in the midst of trials. We need to pray and seek and be open to possibilities so that we can discern whether God is offering us a “way out” of the difficulty we are experiencing. 

Jesus seems to have taken the way out several times (see the list at the end of this meditation). Yes, in the end he did head directly to Jerusalem, where he knew he would be crucified. But during the three years prior to that, he took escape routes whenever they were needed to continue his ministry and his life, or to rest and renew himself. 

So the question we face as caregivers is: Is this the time to head to Jerusalem? Or is this the time to seek a way out? 

It is not easy to answer this, and each person’s solution will be unique. But the question is worthy of prayer and consultation with other wise people. If Jesus took the way out, we need to be open to doing that too. 

Jesus took the way out

• When the people of his home town of Nazareth were trying to toss him from the brow of a hill, he slipped through the crowd and escaped. (Luke 4:28-30)
• When he was so mobbed by sick people in the towns that he couldn’t preach, he stayed in the countryside. (Mark 1:45)
• When he knew the Pharisees were trying to find a way to kill him he stayed away from the places where he would be vulnerable. He hid from them and moved about in secret; he continued to minister, but in safer places. (Matthew 12:14-15, John 7:1, John 7:10, John 11:53-54)
• He accepted assistance from the women who followed him throughout his ministry. (Luke 8:1-3)
• When a crowd was so massive and eager to touch him that there was a danger they would crush him, he asked his disciples to ready a boat so that he could create a safe distance from the crowd. (Mark 4:1, Luke 5:1-3)
• Jesus withdrew to deserted places to pray after a full day of healing the sick. (Luke 5:15-16) While many caregivers pray, how many can “withdraw to a deserted place” to do it?
• Jesus entrusted his disciples with a share in his responsibility to preach, teach, and heal – sending them out into the towns of Israel when he saw that he alone could not reap the harvest that was ripe (Luke 10:1-2)
• He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water (John 4:7)
• He escaped from the Pharisees when they tried to arrest him, and he went away across the Jordan. (John 10:39-40)