To be up front and honest, this ride has not been without discouragement and disappointment. Let’s be absolutely clear, we are 150% sure that God has us where He needs us. How do we know that? Because while it feels we are in the midst of a typhoon from the enemy, God has UNMISTAKABLY popped up at certain times to let us know to keep going. It has seemed that the waves have come more frequently lately; however, we have found that these are the times where we try to look harder for our Father and His wisdom. Sometimes, it comes in the shape of a blonde headed, Jedi padawan braided, 8 year-old in the back of your wobbly riding minivan.
We just were licking some wounds from some shots we took unfairly. It was one of those times when you wonder if you should take their advice and throw in the towel. Just look at the circumstances we are facing! It makes no sense to keep going. You are running dangerously low. No responsible level-headed person in their right mind would continue with this, right?
Realizing that we needed to get some sort of guidance, we packed the kids up in the van, threw the Bible in the middle console and drove to nowhere. Sometimes you just need to get out of the RV.
Before we pulled out, I knew it was my heavenly role to lead this family and pull some amazing verses out of my rear end. I really had nowhere to go, but did my best to make it look like everything was under control. Prepare yourselves for real spiritual leadership!
Then, a quiet voice comes from behind me: “Can I read the Bible, Pop?"
I have to admit that my first reaction was one of irritation. Dare you upstage the lack of preparation and blankmindedness that I’m producing? A big fat “NO” was on my lips when I realized that I needed to buy some more time for God to write the verse reference in the sky. The Bible gets passed to the back.
Heather then rolls her eyes as we hear Sy flipping pages a million times. He whispers, “I think it’s in Acts.” Then, “No wait, maybe it’s Genesis.” Yep, this was going nowhere for sure. More sounds of page turns. I am officially checking out at this point. Hope you all enjoy the ride, I’m going somewhere else in my head. This kid is completely clueless to the pain and anguish in his parents’ hearts.
As we pull out on to the road and get about a half-mile down, we hear: “I got it. It’s Acts 13:47. Well, actually it’s in the middle of 47 and 48.” Are you kidding me? You’re not even going to give us a full verse? (Insert major sarcasm here.) This ought to be our best family Bible time yet! Hooray!
Then, it was like a pallet of spiritual bricks fell out of the sky and crushed our Odyssey in its tracks:
“I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.”
Both our jaws were in our laps. All I could do was put one of my hands over my mouth and begin sobbing. Heather (probably for the sake of safety) encourages me to pull the van over so we can discuss what just happened.
When we asked Sy why he picked that verse, we didn’t get much of an answer other than “because I like it.”
Ok, God. We’re still listening. Thank you for knowing how we feel, placing the call in our hearts, seeing the wounds that come with it, and sending the words that felt like your arms were thrown around our entire family. You are good God. Really, really good. You have confirmed our calling yet again.
We are exactly on the right track and we will keep going.
Jordan*
No Muck Motto: It’s called “The Living Bible” for a reason.
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