Riding Through Stinky Town

     When I was pastoring in Tennessee, we would make trips to Florida to see my relatives on special occasions.  The children were small and we planned our trips to be in the middle of the night sometimes so that they could sleep through the majority of the long drive.  As you can imagine it kept down a lot of "Are we there, yet." and "How much longer?"
     It did settle THAT problem.  However, it didn't settle the problem of Stinky Town.  When we got closer to the pulp mills, we would have to ride through miles of a strong odor.  It would make riding unpleasant for a while.  You certainly couldn't hold your breath for the thirty minutes or so that you had to endure.
     So it is with God's Promises/God's Destinations.  His ways being much higher than our ways doesn't mean that there won't be a Stinky Town on the way to His Destination.  Let's take David for just one example.  When God declared through Samuel that David would be the next king of Israel, not a whole lot immediately changed.  His brothers still treated him like a punk.  When God brought him to the battle where he killed Goliath, his brothers talked about his "naughtiness" and told him to go back and feed the sheep.  Also, the more that David fought valiantly for King Saul, the more he was hated by him.  Eventually he had to run away in fear of his own life.  Yet, he stayed patient before the Lord as he rode through one stinky town after another.  He trusted God to get him from point A to point B just like said He would.  God never told him about the stinky towns, neither how bad they were nor how many they would be.

AND, GOD WAS FAITHFUL TO HIS WORD

Matt 10:22-- but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

     There was a time, in a cave, when he had Saul trapped.  His men encouraged him to kill  Saul.  His men believed that God had put Saul in David's hands.  David's relationship with God taught him to wait.  God had His better way of getting to the destination He had promised.  David could have killed him, but what would people say about him?  Big David.  Killed the king while he slept.  No.  David endured until God worked out His will in his life.  He taught that band of miscreants that day how to trust God.  Through David's ability to ride through several stinky towns with his eyes focused on God,  God was able to turn them into mighty men of valor.

     What a challenge for us that call ourselves leaders today.  How are we affecting the men that we are around?  Are we teaching them to always live in stinky town by following our natural reactions?  Or, are we teaching them to ride the High way (highway) THROUGH stinky town and on to the promises of God?