My family and I like to take trips to Pottstown, PA to visit my wife’s side of the family. It’s not a long journey, perhaps around four hours including one stop, but it’s long enough. One of the signs that we look for as we are coming down the Pennsylvania Turnpike is the one that reads; Morgantown Exit 13 Miles. Once we reach that exit we know that we have just about forty-five minutes left in our journey. Shouts of joy ring out from my son as he draws closer to Nana’s house and my wife awakes from her hibernation and begins to have a conversation with me. The dead in the van have risen! It’s truly a miracle!

But what do you do in life when you are following the directions and there are no exit signs? How do you navigate the road of life at this point?

Personally, there are times on this journey where I become like the little kid in the backseat crying out, “are we there yet?” I just want to take the wheel partly because I have control issues, partly because I don’t trust the driver, and partly because I just know there is a better way than the way that we are going. I’m a backseat driver.

My family and I have been on this never ending journey for the past decade and it goes on and on my friend. We have navigated through a few job losses, financial stress that comes with those losses, death, disappointments, and more closed doors than I can count. It just seems like there are no rest areas to be found and my butt is getting tired from sitting in the car for so long. I just want to find the exit so I can get out and stretch my legs.

There is a story in Joshua chapter 3 that has brought great encouragement to me.

Moses has recently died and now Joshua is in charge. Repeatedly, in the beginning of this book, God tells Joshua to “not be afraid”, “take courage”, “I am with you.” Joshua is obviously dealing with major fear and God knows it. Can you blame him? Joshua has big sandals to fill! Moses was THE man. He led the people out of Egypt and was used to part the Red Sea. God knows that Joshua needs a “Moses style miracle” in order for the people to trust him as their new leader. So God leads them to the edge of the Jordan River, just a across from Jericho.

After a few days God commands Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant into the river (vs. 8). Joshua obeys. The step, literally, had to be a scary one for the priests. They were stepping into a flooded river (vs. 15). The banks of the Jordan were overflown in the spring due to the snow melting from the mountains of Lebanon. The river, usually shallow and about one hundred yards across now became swollen and close to a mile wide. Matthew Henry’s Commentary.

The Bible says that when the very soles of their feet touched the river that the water rose up in a heap upstream in a town called Adam (vs 15-16). This town was 19 MILES AWAY. When that water stood up like an invisible wall the rest of the water still had to flow on down past the priests into the Salt/Dead Sea where the Jordan river poured into. Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Joshua 3:16 “the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.” (NLT)

Here is the interesting thing; they didn’t SEE the miracle as it happened. It was 19 miles away. They had to wait to see the miracle before them. If the river was traveling 19mph did they wait an hour until they saw the rest of the water pass on by? Did they wait half an hour? Fifteen minutes? I don’t know but what I do know is that they had to wait.

What are you waiting for? On you waiting on God to bring healing to you or to a loved one? Are you waiting on that job to come open? Are you waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Right? Are you waiting for your marriage to heal?

The truth is that we all are waiting on a miracle. But sometimes God is waiting on us to put our feet into the river. It doesn’t make sense to step into a flooded river. Nothing that God usually asks us to do makes any sense of paper. It doesn’t always add up. But I know that we serve a God who wants to bless us more than we want to be blessed.

Recently my family and I stepped into the river. My wife is a teacher but has been without full time work since the end of last summer. I am a pastor. On April 28 I resigned from my positions at two local churches to be effective on August 1. Our plan is to relocate to the Gettysburg, Pa area and to attend Freedom Valley Worship Center and to volunteer for this next season. I will not be on staff and there is no guarantee of any position on staff in the future. Pastor Gerry Stoltzfoos wants to tap into my untapped potential and I’m willing to give it a try.

It’s a scary thing stepping into a swollen river. I can’t see the bottom. I’ve got school loans that are coming out of my ears and I have bills to pay. This makes no sense on paper and I’d be lying to you if I wasn’t have some second thoughts. But after months and months of prayer, counsel, and research on this pastor we felt this was our next step and we are doing the best that we can to walk this path in faith and trust.

Our miracle is 19 miles away. We’ve stepped in and now we wait for the water to pass on by so we can cross over to our next adventure.

I’m doing my best to release control, to trust God, and to let Him lead the way. He will never take you or me where He isn’t leading.