My birthday is July 7th, I turned 54 this year, and my wife, Rose, and I are empty-nesters. We are at the stage of life where we have a lot more time together and I like to go on what I call adventures. What that involves is taking roads that are not the main roads, just to see what’s down there. We visit places that are out of the way, we try new things. It’s a lot of fun! I wrote a book! My wife has written some songs, I entered a comedy tournament in Nashville! It’s fun and a little bit scary at times! I tell you this because no matter what age you are, we are all on a journey that will take us to fun and scary places. Just like the times we are living in now and the times that others have lived before us, there are ups and downs and what keeps us moving forward is our faith! We have faith in God and then we have to have faith in each other.
I want us to read a verse from the book of Acts. Chapter 7 and verse 36. He brought them out, after that he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty years.
For a little background, this is part of what a man named Stephen was saying to a group of people accusing him of being a disturber because he was ministering the gospel with great results! He was rehearsing the history of Israel and telling them about their journey out of captivity in Egypt. They were there for hundreds of years and God miraculously set them free! BUT, they had to go out of Egypt into a wilderness! They had to bring all they had and walk to this new place so they could enjoy the freedom they had been given. To do this meant going somewhere they have never been, under circumstances they had never lived through, complaining the whole way! It’s almost funny when you read about how much they complained. They were grumpy about pretty much everything! We don’t like the food, we need more water, it was better back in Egypt! On and on!
Here we are in the 21st Century, a generation that is going through an extraordinary experience, on a path we’ve never been on, and there is no shortage of unhappy people! But I want to share some perspectives that will help hopefully help you navigate through, not only this pandemic but anything else you will have a pop up in your life, and we all have the pop-ups!
First, think about this, God is with us in the journey we have never been on.
If you read the book of Exodus, you find out that even though they were out in uncharted territory, with the possibility of danger everywhere, the Israelites had God with them the whole way. It’s pretty amazing. The bible talks about a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night that was always ahead of them!
No one in the group could say “Oh, ya, I’ve been through this, we’ll be ok. They had no idea what was ahead of them! It was a new road, a new experience, but God never left them alone. All of us are affected by this global outbreak of Coronavirus. I don’t know about you but, it’s my first pandemic. First time walking on the other side of the road just to keep my distance from someone coming the other way. The first time having to cancel plans and missing out on opportunities because large gatherings of people are forbidden. It’s a new frontier, but we are not alone. At one point, God instructed them to build a tent, not for them but for Him in a sense, so they could really know and understand that He was right there with them. It’s easy to feel alone, very easy. I am sure that some people right now feel like I am by myself in this thing, no one cares or understands. It feels like your lost and vulnerable and could lose everything. That’s why the tent was there, they could look and be reminded that they were not alone. They could rest and then keep going. The tent was portable, you didn’t leave it behind, it came with you on the road. It adapted to the terrain, just like you. It could handle the trip. God is with us. In Deuteronomy 31:6, there is that wonderful verse they needed to hear and we all need to hear: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
What do you say to your kids when they are scared? “I’m right here, it’s OK”. My son is pretty adventurous, there’s not much he won’t attempt, he seems to have no fear, I on the other hand am not so much. I am not a fan of heights and most of my childhood hood I was scared of the deep end of the pool. I remember coming to tears at a camp one time when a councilor was trying to get me to jump in. I was not a fan of having nothing under my feet but water. I liked the security of touching the bottom! The counselor said I’m right here, go ahead, just jump in and I’ve got you. I doubted it even though I could see her treading water right in front of me! But I did it, scared as anything, I did it! I’m sure you're just waiting for me to go ahead and talk about Peter, and how he got out a boat in the middle of a storm and walked on water to see Jesus. He got scared and sank, but Jesus caught him! Great story, yes, Read that one later today on your own! Spoiler alert, he survived! He probably cried though, like I did!
Let’s never forget, that on the road through the weirdest, darkest parts of our life journey, God is with us.
Secondly, think about this. We have each other! For better or worse, we have each other!
Moses was the leader of the Israelites, but he never thought he was qualified. I think he had what we call imposter syndrome. We’re scared that someone will discover we have no idea what we’re doing! He argued with God about it in the book of Exodus. It’s the whole burning bush experience. I would not blame that guy one bit for not wanting to lead this group of people either! IT wasn’t long after they marched out of being captive, that the complaining started. They did not like the food, they needed water, they even complained about his wife! That’s some nerve right! To me, it seemed like an administrative nightmare! A perfect storm of every shade of personality, projecting on him 24/7. His father in law had to step in and give him some great advice, delegate! Find some other leaders and put them in charge and then only deal with the big stuff! Thank God for that guy! What I want you to think about here is that, on this journey, it’s going to be alongside many types of people with a great many opinions on how things should be done. It’s very interesting to study things like the Enneagram or the 5 love languages or even the Myers Briggs personality test and to be able to understand what motivates people to do what they do. It’s great to just find out why I do what I do!
It takes some of us longer to find out how to successfully have healthy relationships. For others, it seems to come naturally. Some of us want to fix the world, some of us want to sit back and drink lemonade watch the sunset. Some people want to control what others do, some don’t care what you do, just do it over there! We are a wild and crazy group and what’s even more interesting is that individually we think WE are the only sane one! Right? I’m the best driver on the road. Of course! All you all are either too fast, too slow or too careless! Is this sounding familiar?
When you have a large group of people, you have conflict. You have fights. You have disagreements. It’s unavoidable because we are humans. We can get on each other's nerves, rub each other the wrong way and just outright cheat and lie to each other! But we are stuck with each other!
During this pandemic, I received many direct messages from people on my Facebook friends list, particularly from friends who never sent me any messages before, all of a sudden just had to share videos and articles about the truth behind what’s going on! There were details about conspiracies and cover-ups! These are supposed to be my friends! I thought, why have you never sent me a hello, how are you? It’s just like panic! Of course, you know, they got a hold of some information, got excited, and sent it to everyone on their list, no time to make it personal you know! So, I just deleted those! Why? Because we need to have some kind of deeper connection before I listen to what you’re saying! Don’t we all need that? What’s going to carry us through the trip on a dark unknown road? Being with someone we know may be crazy, but a least we know we are committed to each other and have more than a superficial connection.
In my book, Conexus, I write about this. The story is set in a time when artificial intelligence is trying to take over the world, but don’t let that scare you away, it’s really about relationships and how much we need them no matter how fractured they may be! It’s for sale on my website toddgale.ca! There’s my plug!
So even though there was a massive group of unthankful, bitter and angry people to work with, God still said, OK, let’s go! Let’s move forward through the scary parts, we have each other!
Now lastly, think about this, on this unknown journey we also have a tour guide!
If you’ve ever been somewhere new on a vacation, you appreciate a good tour guide! Tour guides that are professional, have to be certified, have to continually train and have to be good with people, and have to think on their feet. You could visit a place and look around and go, wow that’s nice, leave, and never scratch the surface of what that place has to offer if you don’t have a guide. You could even tour your own hometown with an experienced guide! A good one will tell you about local buildings, landmarks, and abandon sites you may pass every day! What a way to enrich your life! It helps you remember where you come from and frames how you think about the future.
In John 16:13 it says “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”
The Greek word for a guide there is odega — a word that describes a tour guide or one who would lead you on an excursion. What good is a journey, if along the way, we don’t appreciate what’s around us? Are we in such a big rush to “get though” things that we miss some of the sights and lessons along the way? There were times in the bible when certain people were instructed to build these stone monuments and give the place a name. They did this because future generations would visit and remember the events that happened there. When children would ask about it, they could hear the story of what God did along the road, and their faith could grow.
A guide is someone who can make the journey a better one. Sure, the destination is important, but the road to get there will be a long one if we miss what’s outside the car window! Take it in, look around, breathe a little!
God wanted to take them to this wonderful land, filled with great things, but just like them, we can forget that, even though we’re going through something unknown and even scary, He is with us. We could fail to take into account that even though we’re in this with a lot of others who want all have a say and feel like they are the most important thing going, we are in this together and we need each other. And we have to always remember that along this dirt road, we’re going to arrive at our destination with joy because we didn’t close our eyes and miss the beauty along the way!
