Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. (Joshua 3:1-4 NIV).

I hope you can see the “s” turns of the road in the picture to the left. Mary and I took this one as we made our way through the Smoky Mountains on our way home from North Carolina this week. You can see the snow and ice on the sides of the road. It was beautiful, but a little unsettling at the same time. I had never driven these roads in the winter before. I took my time and went at a very slow pace. This was especially true when I cam to some of the “switchbacks” along the way.

For those of you who have never driven in the mountains, a “switchback” is a curve so severe that it literally “switches you back” in the other direction as you make you way down the mountain. As I was driving I thought about life and the verses in our reading today. If your life is like mine, you will be forced to negotiate some “switchbacks.” These are those experiences in life that seem so impossible to handle mainly because you find yourself going in a different direction, often a direction you’ve never been before. Life is just kike that. It is full of twists and turns, isn't it? Just when you think you have a situation figured out, the rules seem to change. With each new step comes a certain amount of the unknown.