The Red Sea Rules

It may be the shortest but quite possibly the most powerful book I have ever read and definitely spiritual manna for my soul. Every single sentence packs a punch and a world of trust and obey challenges to put into practice.

The Red Sea Rules can be summarized like this:

1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
2. Be more concerned with God's glory than your relief
3. Acknowledge your enemy but keep your eyes on the Lord
4. Pray
5. Stay calm and confident and give God time to work
6. When unsure just take the next logical step by faith
7. Envision God's enveloping presence
8. Trust God to deliver in His own unique way
9. View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future
10. Praise Him!

My stone today is engraved with RSR #8 and the story goes like this....

Over two months ago, we were 11 hours from home and about 1/2 from the border of France on our way to a European worker's family conference. As we pulled into a fuel station our van began to make a horrific grinding noise from somewhere in the undercarriage. It literally sounded like we were dragging the engine. The station attendants told us to "best keep going" because it was Saturday afternoon in a small town in northern Italy in August. In other words if we broke down there we would be hard put to ever get out.

We prayed over the van, that it would get us to our destination and with some trepidation pulled back onto the packed freeway. We not only drove the rest of the way to France without issues, (the noise disappeared) we made it HOME from France taking a number of detours along the way.  And when we took the van to our mechanic to investigate what Pietro suspected was a clutch/flywheel issue (I hope I'm saying that right), there was nothing to indicate a problem or to merit removing our engine to inspect the clutch flywheel.

We were very relieved that the noise had gone away, and continued to drive the van for over two months without a hint of an issue. Last week we had friends here from Canada and had just one day to enjoy with them. We took them to Pompeii and on the way home, lo and behold, about half a block from our mechanic the van started to make that horrific noise again. We pulled into the mechanic and got the diagnosis. Pietro had been right, it was the clutch flywheel. Our mechanic was stupefied that this had happened more than two months prior and then.... stopped. He said by all accounts we should have broke down on the road to France, never mind the trip back and two months of driving to boot.

The bad news is that it was a big job, with a big bill; as big as our entire year's cost of insurance and definitely not in our budget. The good news is that God delivers in His own unique way. That need presenting itself in that moment (right in front of the mechanic) on that day (the only day our friends were here with us) was a divine equation for miraculous provision. When someone leans in from the back seat and says "Guys, what's this gonna cost?" and then gently asks if they can take care of it? That's Rule #8 with skin on folks, and it's the prelude to Rule #10....