One of the delights my job offers is the responsibility of patrolling the entire county. Last week I decided to check an area I had not been to in quite some time. As I'm driving, my GPS tells me to go down a road I was not familiar with. So, trusting the machine over my experience, I obliged and ventured down this road. Within minutes I found my truck stuck in thick, slippery, clay kind of mud. I tried to get it unstuck by driving forward and backward, jostling the steering wheel, putting rocks and sticks under the tires, and every other method I've learned in life. I ended up so deep into the clay pit that I could not open my truck door.
So, I called it quits, crawled out the driver side window, and begin to walk up the road. To sett the scene a little clearer, I was in the middle of the woods in rural Northern California, and I mean rural. there was no one around for miles, and if there was, they were not the ones to kindly welcome unknown flatlanders.
What was I going to do? How do I call my boss and tell him I made a choice to go down a road I should not have. I thought back to myself, and knew there were plenty of warning signs that should have made me turn around, but I didn't. Plus, there wasn't any cell reception where I was. I was getting more and more frustrated, and growing madder every second. I didn't get five steps away from the truck before I slipped and landed on my knees. "That figures!" I shouted. Then that familiar voice came into my head and said, "Of course I brought you to your knees."
I knew immediately that I had forgotten to be grateful in all things. So I began to thank God for everything, including the current situation, and whatever it was that I was about to glean from it. A wonderful calm came over me and that voice spoke again, "Whatever comes of this, will be what comes of it." Again, I immediately knew that no matter what the outcome, God was going to see me through it. I chose to keep walking until I found enough reception to call my boss. I looked down at my phone and there it was, 5G service with one bar of reception. O.M.G. for real.
I called my boss, and to keep this story short-ish, the phone call went really well. We figured the best game plan was for me to walk to the crossroad I passed about a half mile back, and start walking it. My boss was going to grab a couple guys and some rope, and meet me. I began to walk to the intersection thanking God for the calming of my spirit. Then it hit me, I was grateful, but I wasn't praising him in the storm. The first praise song that came to mind was, "Thank you Jesus", and I began singing, "Thank you Jesus for the blood applied..."
A couple minutes later my phone received an alert. I knew I had a mountainous hike ahead of me, and it would be wonderful to have some music to listen to. I now had 3 bars of 5G service, so I went online to my favorite radio station to listen live. Guess what happened? The song playing was Charity Gail "Thank you Jesu".
This confirmation that God gave me made me weep. He's here, He heard my cries, He did not abandon me, He is my Rock. Hallelujah. Even when I went down a road I shouldn't have, and became the target of my own choices, God was still there for me. When I got out of my own misery and called on Him, He showed up big time, and even did it with confirmations.
When you find yourself stuck in the mud, count on the Father to pull you out. By the way, when help showed up we got the truck unstuck, then got their truck stuck, then got it unstuck, and we all made it back to work safely.
