Just Pull Over

While we were on vacation we visited Mt. Rushmore.  We chose to make our visit during the evening so we could participate in the lighting ceremony.  Around 8:30 PM and announcement was made that because a storm as headed toward Mt. Rushmore the evening lighting ceremony was cancelled and the park would be closing. 

We took a few more pictures and then began to rush back to our vehicle.  The sky was growing very dark and the wind was intensifying.  I thought, “Lord, please let me get down this mountain before the storm hits.”  My prayer was answered.  As I hit the foot of the mountain, the heavens broke open.  It was a down pour and the lightening…I have never seen lightening like this…it was like trying to drive through strobe lights.  I took it slow and we were doing fine.  We were three miles from our hotel.  Just as I was beginning to think, “We’ve got this!” the heavens opened even more and the rain became even more of a downpour.  My windshield wipers were doing nothing and as if that and the strobe like lightening were not enough, it then began to hail.  It sounded like someone was beaming our mini-van with golf balls.  I literally could not see more than a foot or two in front of me.  I looked at Kimberly and said, “Help me find a place to pull over.”

Kimberly looked out the passenger window and saw a huge, lit up cross.  She said, “Turn here.” 

“Where?” I asked.

“There is a driveway right here. Turn now!” 

I turned though I could not see what she saw.  Then I drove as close to the church building as I could in my attempt to find some shelter from the storm.  And then we sat.  There was nothing to do, but wait. 

Wait.  Now, there is word of which I am not a fan.  Trust me…I did not want to pull over. I wanted to get to the hotel.  But sometimes the only thing you can do is pull over. 

That is not just true when you are driving through a storm, but also when you are facing a storm in life that is not made of lightening and hail, but just as blinding. In my role, I have had had the honor of listening as people share their burdens.  Just yesterday I listened to a new believe share of her past hurts—I still shake my head in disbelief at the level of harm that can be inflicted on a person way back when they are a child.  Then I stood in a hospice room with a family.  We prayed and sand a song, but I left there with my heart broken for this family who has lost the one they love way before what should have been her time.  Yes, the storms of this life blow through all of our lives, don’t they?  Abuse, financial ruin, dashed dreams, failed relationships, betrayal, illness and death, to name a few.

When the storms of life come, it seems we are tempted to try to find something to do or say.  But my experience is doing something is usually our feeble attempt to not face the store and saying something is often something we end up regretting later.  So, I am trying to learn to put into practice this truth when the storms of life come:  Sometimes the only thing you can is pull over.

In our culture of hurry and busyness little room is made for waiting.  But if we will listen to those who have gone before us we can embrace the wisdom of waiting.  Isaiah the prophet said, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;…they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” 

The practice of waiting…the spiritual discipline of pulling over in the midst of the storm is not inactivity, but as Max Lucado says, “InHIMactivity.”  When we pull over and wait upon the Lord, we open ourselves in the midst of the storm to experience the presence of God in a way that puts a wind beneath our wings…strength is found in this place of waiting that would never be found if you kept on driving in search of it.  A renewal is experienced that would otherwise be impossible in when one is being beaten down by a storm. 

Do you feel like you are driving through a storm?  Sometimes the best thing you can do is just pull over.