Make A Way

I won’t describe the published details of what happened because it’s too painful to read. But I’ll offer enough for you to understand.

Dr. Craig Phelps, his wife Susan, and their four children left their home in Oklahoma, excited to begin their trip to a ski resort in Colorado. That evening, somewhere in the wilderness desert of the Texas panhandle, a tractor trailer hit their van. As he triaged his family in the darkness, Dr. Phelps discovered that his son Jeremy had not survived the crash. They sat beside the roadway in the darkness for 45 minutes waiting for help to come.

During his flight to Oklahoma to attend the funeral, Susan’s brother Don Moen read, “I will do something new, now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Isa. 43:19). Those words inspired him to write a song for his devastated family. “God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me.” One of the verses says, “By a roadway in the wilderness, He’ll lead me and rivers in the desert will I see. Heaven and earth will fade but His Word will still remain, and He will do something new today.”

In 2018, Moen published the book, God Will Make a Way – Discovering His Hope in Your Story, to offer healing. He writes that the song “was born out of a tragedy that started me on the path to understanding that when storms threaten our lives, we are about to see the power of God move in miraculous ways. Here’s the catch though. We must make the intentional decision to look for Him there.”

In the midst of pain, clichés on church marquees and trite but well-intentioned quips from friends can seem to mock your pain. In the deepest night of your soul, you realize that you cannot continue without help from somewhere. Into that darkness shines this ray of light. “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me…for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

In moments of weakness and pain, you could turn to self-medication, against God, and into a shell of your former self. That turns one tragedy into another, but you don’t have to go that way. In the depths of your despair, you will find that God is there. The One who gave His Son for you to believe and receive eternal life has made a way for today.