I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, winter is my least favorite season, mainly because of the cold and everything else that is associated with it. Living in East Tennessee one of the things that is always a part of the winter season is icy roads. Several weeks ago I was a victim of these frigid conditions. Don't worry, I wasn't injured and I didn't wreck my car, it was quite the opposite. I was coming back to my house from visiting some friends in Nashville when I ran into some heavy traffic. After sitting there for several minutes I was informed that the section of the interstate that I was on had been closed and workers were attempting to clear the eastound lanes, coincidentally the side that I was on, of ice. As I sat there I noticed that there were cars going by on the other side and I came to the conclusion that the other side must have already been cleared. I wound up sitting there for about 45 minutes and the longer I sat there the more annoyed I got. I had had a nice couple of days with my friends but I was ready to get back to Knoxville and this road work was holding me up.
Many times life feels like this. I remember encountering a situation very similar to this after graduating from college. I was still single, living at my youth minister's house with him and another friend, working 2 minimum wage jobs and struggling to find a position in my field of study while many of my friends were already married and had gotten jobs using thier degrees well before graduation. I was stalled by the ice while those around me were on the other side of the highway moving along with little or no difficulty. Frustration soon set in as I wondered what the hold up was. I constantly begged God to change my situation but he didn't. Little did I know the journey that he was about to take me on. I soon landed a job at Youth Villages. It was during this year working with some of society's most troubled kids that I determined it was time for me to go back to school. Eventually I landed in Knoxville where I have learned to come out of my shell a little more (I knew exactly 3 people when I first moved here), be real with those around me, listen to and trust them while at the same time refining my own unapologetically Christian worldview. I've even had to develop a little tolerance, especially when it comes to a certain color. 😉
Every now and then I'll take a ride down memory lane and look back at what is, by far, the most defining time in my life up to this point. Even though I felt forgotten and alone and couldn't see any progress, God was still there, working to move the ice and salt the road, helping me to understand more about who I was and where I was going. This life isn't simply about trying to get home. It's about constant surrender, reverant faith and daily growth. That's really all that Jesus wants.
