Every parent has been there, you’ve got the car packed up, filled with gas!! The travel schedule is set and the trip is long but you are ready to go and to get there! But then, 20 minutes down the highway you hear a small, squeaky voice from the backseat, “are we there yet? How much longer? Can we get something to eat? I have to go to the bathroom!”Every parent has been there!! Questions from the backseat! You come to expect them. Every journey to a destination includes them. The same is true for the journey of faith.
All those questions used to aggravate me because all of them required me to abandon, or at least alter, my course, my plan!! Isn’t it funny how God tends to show us, adults, our faith behavior through the behavior of our kids?
Like I said, when I leave the driveway to go on a trip I have a plan and my plans didn’t include stopping every 45 minutes. And God has a plan for my life and I fill His ears with questions like “Are we there yet? How much longer? Why are we going there? What are you doing?”
Just like kids on a trip we get tired of the journeyand we want to know when we can stop. We get tired of serving. We get tired of waiting. We even get tired of the people we’re traveling with which leads to our next behavior that my kids would display when I said “No, we’re not stopping right now.”
We grumble. And this is the exact thing we saw that the Israelites did. They complained about the food, about the place they were traveling, and about their ‘driver’ Moses.
I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that grumbling does not sit well with God. In fact, our grumbling can lead to our wandering. When offered the chance to leave Kadesh and enter the Promised Land, the Israelites listened to the fear-filled report from 10spies instead of the faith-full report of Joshua and Caleb.
The name Kadesh means “Spring of Decision” and it was time for one. They were in the right place to make the right decision. But the majority made the wrong one. The people wished they had died in the desert. So, God told them they would get their wish. They would wander until the unbelieving generation died out.
And they did. They wandered in the Wilderness for 40 years. And guess what, their children were impacted by their decisions.
The decisions you make affect those around you, just like the decisions the Israelites made at Kadesh. You can decide to grumble or be thankful. You can decide to turn away from God or turn toward God. You can decide to wander without purpose through life or follow God’s vision for your life.
Just don’t forget that those in the backseat will be affected by your decisions.
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