Recently we took a road trip.
On the 2nd day Austin won us over but on the 1st day we saw all the wrong parts. We picked a drum kit up from a sketchy industrial estate, I accidentally booked the nastiest hotel (the kind of place that features in American cop shows ) which I hurriedly unbooked when we arrived, we tried to find somewhere for dinner and ended up in a part of town full of drunk people stumbling out of dive bars at 5pm. I very nearly packed the family up and drove back home.
However, having found a much nicer replacement hotel to stay in we decided to try some friend’s recommendations for a coffee shop and give Austin another chance. Our experience the 2nd day could not have been more different, we took a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, headed out to pick up a coffee by the river, strolled around a small forest with peacocks, took a tour of the capitol building and went for a walk by the river to check out a bridge where thousands of bats nest. The sun was shining and it was a stella day making memories with the family.
This year we have started reading the bible in a year with our 2 older boys. As I reflect on our experience in Austin I’ve been thinking about Israel’s experience leaving Egypt (Exodus 14). For some reason God seems to lead them out via a route that brings them to a less than ideal location, trapped between the sea and the desert with Pharaoh’s army in pursuit. In the moment everything seemed impossible to overcome the obstacles that lay in their way. So much that they begin to turn against Moses who had lead them up to that point, complaining “why did you bring us out here to die, in the wilderness?”
It is an emotional wrestling match I can only too well identify with. If I am honest I have so many questions about why things happen the way they happen. Life does not always lead us to easy places and neither does Jesus. I don’t have any deep theological explanations that make me appreciate those kind of hemmed in situations or feelings any some. However, the patterns we can see at work in scripture like exodus where God leads us through the impossible in unimaginable ways fuels enough courage to take heart and hold my nerve long enough to keep waiting … and keep trying to do the right thing in the waiting.
Waiting can feel like a roller coaster, hope swelling high with every glimmer of break through and head spinning lows with every fresh hurdle or set back. I envy anyone who claims to be immune to the emotional roller coaster of life, in my experience the trick is to hold on long enough that we’re still around to experience the final tipping point. Imagine if handful’s of the Israelite’s had left, choosing to take their chances in the desert or with the Egyptian army, maybe some even suggested “they are bound to welcome us back, they need us to build their monuments!” If we had left after our experience the first day we would have only had a disappointing trip. Because we held out we had one of the most fun family days we have had in a while.
Long may we bring life to our world as we hold our nerve long enough to create pathways to breakthrough!
Thank you for sharing your experience! It is all so true that we sometimes quit just before the turning point 🙂
Thanks Mannie! 🙂