If you will tolerate a few words that pertain to me alone, I will then invite you into these paragraphs. Miriam and I have purchased a travel trailer. It’s something that has been on our minds for a while. We’ve dreamt of carefree trips sprinkled with campfires and s’mores. Those dreams recently found both the opportunity and ability - so we now have a trailer! Here is the irony. Before we got the trailer, we bought a small SUV, expecting it to tow our future trailer.  So imagine my surprise when I hooked the new trailer up to the new vehicle and discovered that this is not going to work!! It was like a mouse pulling on an elephant’s tail. So our hope arrived, but I have no way of moving it anyplace. I feel stuck up a blind alley. Trailer or no - you also have found yourself in a blind alley once or twice.

We make decisions in life and have plans about how it all will work out. But plans do not always play out as expected. We may find ourselves facing a brick wall, with brick walls on our left and right. What to do? We have two reactions. First, we assess blame. Whose fault is it? What did we do wrong? We assume that blind alleys are mistakes to be avoided at all costs. But, just because something is confusing or hard doesn’t make it a mistake. I may be rationalizing here, but perhaps blind alleys are the very pathway God uses to prove His grace and power. Which leads to our second common reaction. When we are hemmed in, we try to make our own way out. If we got ourselves into this problem, it’s up to us to get out on our own. But busting through bricks is beyond me. I’ve come to believe that God delights in our blind alleys. It is an occasion to throw ourselves utterly upon His care and watch Him work. Like a dry path through the Red Sea. Like food falling from heaven. Like a stone rolled against a tomb. God will make a way through the blind alleys that confront us.

I am not suggesting we should entrap ourselves intentionally just to see God prove Himself. A careless life is not the answer. I am saying that when we find ourselves at a dead end with no foreseeable option, do not despair. Whether we are stuck in a   cul de sac by wisdom or foolishness, it makes no difference. God is the answer. Whether our entrapment is financial, relational, medical or spiritual, we do have a choice. When we think there are no options before us - faith is always the right response. We may not know which direction God will take us, but faith is not knowing the solutions; it’s about knowing our Lord. So if you see me driving down the road towing a trailer, you will know God broke through a wall to make it so.