Dead Ends

When we want to get to a certain destination, nowadays most of us use Google Maps or some other GPS system.  I remember, in the old days, following a Rand McNally map as it led me down a lonely country road until I ended on a dead end.  Somehow the Dead-End sign had been knocked down, and I had to back up a long distance.  Nobody wants to end up down a dead-end road. 

Many times, we end up down a dead-end that doesn’t have anything to do with being on the wrong street.  We may find ourselves on a dead-end road in terms of hope, in terms of a relationship, in terms of a job, in terms of a sinful habit, or in terms of our finances, or even our faith. 

So, what do we do when we are at a dead end?  I think of Sarah who was promised that she would have a son.  However, at 90 years old her body was at a dead end.  Yet God performed a miracle for her when Isaac was born.  In Exodus 14, the Israelites were fleeing from Pharaoh and ended up hemmed in by mountains, Pharaoh's advancing army, and the impassable Red Sea ahead.  They couldn’t turn around.  God guided them into a physical dead end so they would stop relying on their own strength and watch Him part the waters.  Moses instructed the panicked people to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.  God parted the waters for His people and made a way.  

Probably the darkest dead-end in history is the cross.  Jesus suffered, bled, and died.  Then they buried Him.  What a horrible dead-end.  But we all know what happened three days later.

I remember the times when I didn’t follow my GPS explicitly and it promptly kept repeating the word: “recalculating”.  When we take a wrong turn, God uses closed doors and dead ends to recalculate our steps into His way.  Perhaps you have found yourself between the Devil and the deep Red Sea. Look up! God specializes in turning human dead-ends into miraculous open doors.