Lessons From An Ice Covered Road

This past week, while on the homeward bound leg of a quick road-trip, we ended up driving into the aftermath of one of the worst snow storms to hit North Texas in a long time.  

The roads were covered in ice, and the few snowplows and salt trucks out working didn't seem to be making a dent in it at all. 

At one point we found ourselves stuck behind what seemed like miles of traffic, dominated by semi-trucks, which were all ground to a halt.  We sat there for over an hour before things started moving.  And even then, we could only crawl forward. 

Then it happened again several miles later.  Only this time we sat for an hour and a half before we could move forward.  

We were feeling helpless, frustrated and anxious as everything seemed so out of our control.  There was nothing we could do, no where to go, no one to appeal to for information, or help.  

There were moments when I began beating myself up, wishing I'd taken another route, gone another way.  

But in the end, we just had to wait, and hope that at some point we would make it home.  Which we did---five hours delayed, but still...  we made it home.  

Sometimes life is like that, isn't it?  It feels like we will never get to where we want to go.  It seems like everything is out of our control, and there isn't a clue as to why we are stuck, or why things have happened the way they've happened.  

And we often begin to think it's our fault---that we failed, took a wrong turn, and messed it all up somehow.  

But it's also in those moments we are given the opportunity to grow in our faith, to develop spiritual maturity and to learn to trust that God is with us, no matter what.  

We can also see then, even in the waiting, there are constant reminders that the One who has been with us through all of our stops and starts, our missed opportunities, wrong turns and challenging roads... that One is with us still, and always leading us home.  

I recently read this amazing line from Andrew Peterson's newest book Adorning the Dark:  

Sometimes you start with nothing and hope it all works out.  Not sometimes--every time.  All you have is your willingness to fail, coupled with the mountain of evidence that the Maker has never left or forsaken you. 

May you find courage and hope in this today and every day to keep moving forward in faith.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.