This past Sunday evening, the hubs and I landed on Indiana soil at 6:45 p.m. to find it a balmy 22 degrees. Snow. Of course, snow. There’s been record amounts of it in the Midwest this winter. In fact, as I write, they just canceled school YET AGAIN for tomorrow.

But back to Sunday . . . we were returning from a week in the Caribbean, a much-needed retreat in which we did nothing we didn’t want to do and were served instead of being the ones to serve.

I should probably add the disclaimer here that we very rarely do this. I wish I could say we snuck away for a week alone more often than we actually do but you know . . . life.

I had planned to continue with the Love Well series today but since returning home, I’m getting no answers on the angle God is asking me to go with the whole “Loving Your Husband Well” thing.

It’s a critically important topic–marriages are failing left and right these days and when I talk about the struggles Jason and I have had, 95% of the listeners exhale loudly and say “You, too?”

But when I’ve prayed over direction on where to go on this topic, I’ve gotten nothing.

He’s been silent.

Yet sometimes, God’s silence is the actual message.

Exhale. Listen. Get your family in order. Massage the hearts that are still missing their mama even though I’ve been home for two days.

Since we returned home later in the evening and had been gone for eight days, we allowed the crew to stay-up until we arrived home. This meant bedtime was closer to 9:30 p.m – about two hours later than usual (and yes, I try to get my kids in bed by 7:30 or 8:00. It’s the only way I stay half-way sane. I love them but, you know…A woman’s gotta have some time.)

Before tucking them in, I turned off the alarm clocks and decided we would sleep a bit longer and go to school late the next morning. As a result, Sarah missed some work and had to make it up.

She came home today with an assignment sheet: “Read Exodus 13 – the part about the Israel’s Wilderness Tour”

With the next-round (!) of snow quietly falling, we sat on the couch by the fire and read a book of the Bible I tend to forget about.

As soon as I read the following, I knew what He was up to:

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.

He didn’t lead them along the main road even though it was the shortest route.

Hmm.

And while I have so much more to say about this passage, and I eventually will, it was this part, this part about negating the shortest path, that shook my shoulders the hardest.

I tend to want it now. I want it on my timing. And I want it to be brilliant.

I expect Him to be my personal ATM machine, to dispense the money I need as soon as I type in the code.

Which makes the silence, the nothing, so incredibly frustrating. I am an Israelite, confused by this long detour, wondering what on earth is taking so long.

When He gives us nothing, it’s always in preparation for something.

One of my favorite writers, Glynnis Whitwer, once said something along the lines of “If you have writer’s block, you aren’t in the Word enough.”

Preach it, sister. Inspiration comes from the living word that leaps from the pages and weaves itself into the tapestry our being. It becomes a part of our story because His word is just as relevant today as it was 2,000 plus years ago.

So if you are praying through something right now and you’re finding yourself on a detour when you would have really just preferred the shorter route thankyouverymuch, trust His silence. Trust His navigational skills but read the map. He hasn’t done us wrong ever. Not once.

That’s a really good track-record.

All this to say, since it’s Wednesday and I have much to say about loving our husbands well, I’ll continue the “Love Well Project” on Monday and write about random stuff here until then.

In the meantime, I’ll be basking in the silence and reading His map.