Standing in a Broad Place

In the Psalms, David and other writers talk about God setting their feet in a broad place. What does that mean?

The phrase is used to describe God taking the speaker from a place of danger and insecurity to a place of safety and security, as in Psalm 18:19. Psalm 18 begins with David crying out to God for help as waters of oppression, ungodliness, and death threaten to drown him. Because of God's delight in David,

"He sent from above, He took me;

He drew me out of many waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,

From those who hated me,

For they were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

But the Lord was my support.

He also brought me out into a broad place;

He delivered me because He delighted in me" (Psalm 18:16-19).

Think about David's life before he officially became king. As a shepherd boy, he traversed uneven terrain to rescue sheep. As a man on the run, he scaled crags and mountains in the wilderness, fighting for his life. His brothers questioned his motives, and his king slandered and tried to murder David, even though he lived uprightly before the Lord. David knew what it was like literally and metaphorically not to be on sure footing.

When your feet are balanced on tight, narrow ledges, every little movement counts. One wrong step and you're dead. The simplest tasks take every bit of your concentration to complete. You're tense, living in survival mode, not daring to think too far beyond the next breath. When you're standing in a wide area, you have breathing room. You can think beyond your current circumstances. You can breathe. You can dream and hope. You're free to show up as your full self and hear instruction from the Lord without fear.

Last month, I erroneously put my feet on a tiny ledge when the Lord clearly meant for me to remain standing in a broad place. An opportunity came up to audition for a Christian audiobook company. Notice, I say, "an opportunity came up," not "the Lord directed me to an opportunity." On paper, everything seemed fine. The owner of the company stated in the audition notes that a good production of this book could lead to future projects for the narrator. But they were looking for a male narrator. Based on the subject matter, I thought, well, maybe they only THINK they want a male narrator because they're afraid that a breathy, airy person will audition and they want gravity. Gravity I've got! So, I recorded the audition excerpt.

There was nothing theologically wrong with the excerpt, but it wasn't written in a way that naturally fit my speaking pattern. In fact, it was quite challenging to perform, because much of the sentence structure was repetitive. Multiple sentences beginning with the same words. Sentences containing the same patterns and structure. When this comes up, it's the narrator's job to hunt for opportunities to give variation to the piece so that listeners don't fall asleep or turn of the book. Every. Little. Bit. Counts. Every breath on the tiny ledge is significant. It's not freeing at all.

However, I was able to give it a decent read and quickly begin the audio editing process. I had nearly finished, and absolutely hated how it sounded. I was so worried about not sounding like an excitable woman that I excluded the natural, emotional delivery from the piece which you are probably very familiar with if you've ever listened to me read.

Needing a litmus test to know if the sample was truly terrible, I watched a video on the owner of the company, and got the impression that someone like me would have a lot to prove to someone like him. I dug into his company's narrator roster. It was mostly comprised of men, with very few women. One was similar to my vocal age, the other two were a little lighter and brighter. There was much more forgiveness in the editing of their samples than I give to mine. By now, this search was no longer about whether or not this was a good place to get godly work. It was about proving to someone who "outranked" me that I was more than good enough to work for him. I was seeking validation from a person, walking the tightrope of the narrow place, and I had no business there, but was too blinded by pride and need to see it.

Fortunately, my husband did. As I was animatedly explaining my plans and frustrations, he calmly sat back and said, "It sounds like you're doing this in your flesh. I don't think you've asked God about this at all."

Flushing with embarrassment at being caught and kicking my toes in the carpet, I confessed, "That's EXACTLY what I'm doing! It's been nothing but silence from Him about it!"

My words were punctuated by a THUD outside the front door, announcing the arrival of a fresh batch of Daughter, Arise paperbacks, a project which I had been given instructions from the Lord to write, record, and steward. I felt very small in the wake of God's sense of humor. He had given me a very broad place already. What was I doing on teetering on a narrow ledge looking for the approval of some random person, when my Heavenly Father, the King of the Universe, had given all this room to gallop?

That's the other thing about the broad place. The Lord puts you there. In every instance the phrase is used, God moves the speaker there, or enlarges the path under their feet. We can only be the recipients of this grace, not its engineers. It wasn't hard to scrap my plans and get back to what I was supposed to be doing after thinking about that.

Our Father want us to always operate as if we are always standing in a broad place, because Jesus' sacrifice made a way for us to come boldly before Him in confidence and humility. If God is for us, who can stand against us? Our confidence is supposed to come from Him and be in Him. It's easy to lose sight of that. But, it's just as easy to confess and call on the Lord, knowing that He'll set your feet upon the Rock, the broadest of the broad places.