For When You’re Caught in the Middle

A Prayer Inspired by 1 Samuel 25:14–35

There’s a kind of exhaustion that comes from standing between extremes, caught in the middle of conflict, confusion, or chaos. I’ve been feeling that weariness lately.

These days, everyone seems to be picking sides. Social media thrives on outrage. Politics feel like a tug-of-war where no one wins. Families fracture over ideologies. Churches split over what should be held together by love. And here I am, here we are, trying to find another way.

Not the way of avoidance. Not the way of aggression. But the way of Christ. The way of peace.

That’s what moves me about Abigail. Hers is a story that I didn’t remember, a forgotten passage of beautiful significance. Abigail didn’t take the easy route. She stepped between rage and revenge, between foolishness and destruction, and chose the harder path: mercy. She spoke words that turned hearts. She offered provision when violence was expected. She was a bridge. A brave one.

In a world that rewards taking sides, I want to be someone who steps into the gap. Someone who listens deeply. Someone who risks being misunderstood for the sake of healing. Someone who lives out the third way of Jesus, not as a compromise, but as a calling.

This prayer is for those of us in the middle, tired, tender, trying our best to bring grace into the tension.

For When You’re Caught in the Middle
A Prayer Inspired by 1 Samuel 25:14–35

Christ of the Third Way,
You see the tension I carry,
Pulled between anger and compassion,
Between justice and patience,
Between the desire to fix things and the ache of knowing I can’t.

I don’t want to play the games of Saul or Nabal,
Power-hungry, reactive, clinging to pride.
But I also don’t want to stay silent when harm is being done.

So I find myself, like Abigail,
In the messy middle.
Walking between two fires.
Offering bread where others demand blood.
Risking rejection to stop the cycle.

Give me courage to speak the words that bring calm.
Give me tenderness when I’d rather shut down.
Give me wisdom when both sides seem deaf to each other.

Make me a peacemaker, not just a peacekeeper,
Not avoiding conflict,
But transforming it.
And when the weight is too much,
When I feel like I’m standing alone in the gap,

Remind me: I am not alone.
You are in the middle too.
This is where you’ve always been.
Not shouting from the sidelines,
But with us in the tension,
Holding it all in love.

Let your Spirit shape me
Into someone who steadies the shaking,
Who sees beyond the sides,
And who believes that even here,
Even now,
The way of mercy is still possible.
Because You are here, and there, with me.
Amen.