"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

“EVEN IF YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, YOU’LL GET RUN OVER IF YOU JUST SIT THERE!”

I heard those words in a vivid dream back in the Spring of 1993; words that left me completely confused and shaken – yet, ultimately changed my entire life, because they “led me to the Lord.”

In the dream, I was sitting at the very top of a steep roller-coaster track with the wind blowing on my face, watching throngs of tiny people milling around below. No one seemed to notice that I was perched at the summit of the track; no one cared. I was all alone, just sitting there, too numb to wonder why or how I got there…

Suddenly, a uniformed police officer materialized on a motorcycle that came to rest near my feet. “Hello, ma’am,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know,” I replied weakly, in a voice that sounded defeated, tired and depressed. Having just retired from the US Army, I was jobless and lost - and freshly divorced after yet another failed marriage from yet another abusive man. My life had pretty much been an endless series  of ups and downs, and drama and chaos; and over the last year or so, it was basically in the proverbial toilet. Lately, I had been feeling like a complete failure, with no one to turn to and nowhere to go.

“Well,” the cop replied tersely. “You just need to leave!”

“Why?” I demanded. “I’m not bothering anybody!”

“Because you can’t stay here, ma’am,” he yelled over his shoulder as he suddenly drove away.

I sat there, blinking stupidly for a few seconds, allowing his words to sink in - and then, suddenly, via that proverbial “bolt of lightening,” my mind seemed to open, and it hit me: I couldn't stay, because I would end up being run over by one of the roller coaster’s trains!

DUH!

AS IF ON CUE, I SUDDENLY WOKE UP from that dream.  Struck with terror, I remember my eyes flying open as I sat up in bed, trembling, gasping for air, wondering where that dream had come from, as have always hated and shunned roller coasters!  I didn’t even want to go anywhere near them!

I lay there for for some minutes, pondering that dream, wondering what it had meant.  But nothing came to mind. All I knew was that it had been so clear and real, that it HAD to have been a message of some kind.

But - a message from whom? And why?

Later, while sitting at the kitchen table, staring into space with a steaming hot cup of coffee clutched in my hands, it suddenly hit me, as I remembered the words of Oklahoma’s “favorite son,” Will Rogers who once said:

“EVEN IF YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, YOU’LL GET RUN OVER IF YOU JUST SIT THERE!”

There it was! THAT was the message! After a year of floundering around, wondering who I was and what I was to do with my life, I was obviously supposed to make a change!

Yes ... a change. I had known deep down for a long time, that I needed to come out of my comfort zone of fear and pity and self-loathing, and DO something – but I had been too depressed to even bother with it.

But WHAT? I was in my early forties. What could a divorced, “middle-aged” woman possibly DO to "start all over again?"  I had been such a wreck after my divorce that I couldn’t even hold down a steady job, much less contemplate the idea of a new relationship … or figure out how to spend my miserable days.…

But then, suddenly, I remembered a friend's invitation to attend a singles group that met at a local church.  But yeah … No, I wasn't exactly the "church" type...

But … then again – it was something I had never thought of before.  Perhaps THAT was the way to get a new start? Something different?  Perhaps I could meet my "knight in shining armor" there, and FINALLY get that “happily forever after” I had longed for all my life?

Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, something HAD to change!

So … although my heart wasn’t quite in it … I forced myself to get dressed on that sunny Sunday morning, climbed into my car and hesitantly herded my car toward that church…

To my surprise, as it turned out, it was the best decision I had ever made! Long story short, not only did it get me “out of my rut”; but it placed me smack-dab in the middle of a long and winding road that ultimately led me to GOD!  (Specifically, three and a half years later, that “road” finally led me to the WHOLE truth of the Bible, to YHWH/Yeshua/Torah, AND to a new husband!)

THANK YOU, YHWH, for opening my spiritual eyes; and for Your Grace and Mercy on this poor, lost soul who had never before realized that, that “little hole in her soul” could be filled, and healed from the inside-out, ONLY by ADONAI Rapha, ADONAI Nissi, ADONAI Yireh, El Shaddai!

John 15:16 You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you. (CJB)

Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (ESV)

Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,' says ADONAI,'plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. 12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; 14 and I will let you find me,' says ADONAI…. (CJB)