Running On Empty

We have had quite the adventure this past week. It will be sad to see the week come to a close, but the girls are super excited to start school next week, (and it will be nice to sleep in my own bed again).

We have had our ups and our downs, just like any family spending 24/7 together in a 29 foot camper. The ups have far outweighed the downs and we can look at the downs and laugh already.

I have a lot to share about this vacation and the quiet time I have spent with God. I love to sit outside in the still of the morning to read and pray.

Today, however, I have a scary, funny, Praise God story to share that will hopefully brighten your day.

A couple of days ago we decided to load everyone up into the pickup and take a nice scenic drive through the Hills to explore the beauty that surrounded us. We stopped at the campground office to grab a map. Hubby made a comment about needing to get gas, but we would get it later. (note to self: always fill up your tank if you have an opportunity to do so).

We headed down the road until we came to a beautiful lake. We explored and took pictures, it was so much fun and so beautiful. As we left the lake my husband said again that we needed to get some gas. Of course, there was nowhere to get gas at the lake. (note to self: do not head up a mountain when you are almost out of gas).


So we loaded back into the pickup and took off up the mountain through Needles Highway. We got closer to the top and the gas tank said 21 miles left until we were empty. I could tell that my hubby was starting to get a little nervous, but we knew we couldn't be too far away from civilization.


Well, we started down the mountain. The road was really narrow, at some places only one car could get through a tunnel at a time. Now the gas light came on in the pickup and it would not tell us how many miles we had left before we ran out of gas. We started to get really nervous. We started to wonder if we were ever going to get down the mountain. There was nowhere to pull off the side of the road and we were unsure how far we were from the bottom of the mountain.

I laughed and said, "If God can move mountains, then he can get us to a gas station."

Well, we really, really started to get nervous. We thought for sure we were going to run out of gas at any moment. I said, "I have been praying, God please get us to a gas station." My middle child (my little prayer warrior) said, "You have been talking. I have been praying this whole time. I have been saying Dear Lord, don't let us run out of gas!"

After we got done visiting about how God wasn't going to let us run out of gas, suddenly the gas light went off and the gas range came back on. It said we had 39 miles until we were on empty.

Let me tell you, we started singing praise songs in the pickup. About 15 minutes later we pulled into a convenience store and filled up the tank. When my hubby got out to fill up the car we started to pray. Thanking God for filling us up. And we laughed. God is so good.

Our girls will never forget this vacation. Once again, God answered their prayers and they knew that He would. I think through it all God was teaching me a lesson, too.

That morning I was reading an entry in My Utmost For His Highest that said, "it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we will go to the breaking point and not break confidence in Him."

I then turned to Matthew 6 and read, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life." Matthew 6:25-27

Oswald Chambers talked about our "elementary panic prayers" to God when we are in crisis. That day on the mountain when we were almost out of gas I remembered my quiet time that morning. I had complete confidence in God that He would not leave us stranded on that mountain.