Have you ever been in a place where you just felt stuck? Perhaps you were stuck in an airport waiting for what seemed like an eternity for your connecting flight to actually connect. Maybe you chose to take a chance that a gas station would be just around the bend only to find out that your gas gauge was not completely accurate. Or perhaps you ran out of your house in a hurry only to remember that you had forgotten your keys just as you closed the door. Yes, I have done all three and it’s not fun being stuck in those situations!

But, I believe the worst place to be stuck is in life. Everyone wants to know what their purpose is and why they even exist. There is a reason why the Bible is the most sought after book in the world and a reason why Rick Warren’s, “Purpose Driven Life” was and still is a bestseller. We want to know what on earth are we here for and if what we are doing is actually what we need to be doing.

Many years ago I read an article in a magazine, I forget the name of it, that centered around something that I like to do when I can and that is to go hiking. A group of men decided to go on a very novice trek up a mountain when they noticed a storm coming on the horizon. So, they did what any smart man would do and they chose to take a shortcut. My son, Ethan, likes to remind me that my shortcuts are not really that short! In the hiking world getting off of the main path is not always the smartest thing in the world to do but when you are in a hurry to get from one place to another and you see a storm coming our tendency is to avoid it and go our own way. Their journey landed them in a precarious position of being stranded out in the open, staring up at a rock face, in the middle of the storm. Not good. They spent a few frightful hours, huddled together, out in the open until the storm passed and then they decided to go back the way that the came to reconnect with the main trail. There were three things that this experience taught the author that he shared with his readers.

Pray Simply. Their prayers, in the midst of the storm, were ones of, “God, would you please keep us safe?”, “Lord, watch over us until this storm passes.” Sometimes, we just need to quit over-complicating our relationship with God and learn to have a conversation with Him. The prayers of Jesus were very powerful but were very simple and direct. May we learn how to openly, honestly, and yet simply converse with God.

Wait Sometimes.This is the part where we feel stuck. The waiting is what is so hard and what makes us so impatient. Maybe we have been praying very simply but yet it still feels like the storm is raging and nothing is happening but oh there is much happening that we cannot see. Honestly, there is simply nothing that we can do in our own strength that will make this journey go any faster. If those hikers would have chosen to stay on the main trail they would have had the shelter to wait out the storm. Ephesians 6:13 tells us to put on the full armor of God and then when you have done all of that you simply stand. Isaiah 40:31 also tells us that when we wait on the Lord that we will receive strength, we will soar, we will run, and we will walk. It doesn’t sound like being stuck is where we will live if we can learn to be patient and wait on Him, does it?

Stick to the Path. It’s our human nature to take things into our own hands and to find the shortest way to get from point A to point B. When it comes to the purpose and will of God that theory simply will not work. It never has and it never will. The sooner that we can get that through our thick heads the better off we will be in this life. God has given us the gift of free will. We can choose any direction that we want. But, when we come to that proverbial fork in the road the best course of action is to pray simply and to wait sometimes which in essence give us the ability to stick to the path. He is the vine and we are the branches and apart from Him we can do nothing.

Pray, wait, stick=unstuck!