After almost seven hours of travel, with the last two hours stop-crawl-go-crawl-stop from Richmond to just beyond Fredericksburg, Virginia, and a near miss from an anxious eighteen-wheeler on Interstate 495, we drove onto eastbound U.S. 50 outside of Washington D.C. and were greeted with light traffic and open highway. Upon seeing this, my hands briefly left the steering wheel elevating upwards in praise to God.

No more miles of red taillights in front of us, nor wondering if the operators of the vehicles behind us were alert enough to see our taillights that repeatedly had to be activated outside of Richmond.

"I pity those traveling with small children," commented Dorcas as we edged along northbound Interstate 95 during the early evening hours. Yes, can you imagine? No doubt some drivers were hearing questions about when they would arrive at their destination or urgent requests for a potty break.

I was personally being frustrated by the extremely heavy volume of traffic that threatened to turn the return-home trip into more than a ten hour journey. I began to consider finding an eastbound Virginia state road that would connect me with U.S. 301 which would take us over the Potomac River well south of D.C. and later connect with the needed U.S. 50.

At one point I saw a direct connection to U.S. 301 and signaled for permission from those behind me to enter the right hand lane as we slowly approached the exit. Someone honked, indicating it was OK to enter the right lane in front of them so I took the opportunity. However, looking in the distance I could see that the exit ramp for U.S. 301 was backed up. I began to wonder if it would be the wrong choice to take U.S. 301. After reasoning that hundreds of others were going to use that route as an escape from Interstate 95 and that U.S. 301 might be even more congested, at nearly the last moment I decided to stay on the Interstate.

So, after some hours after breaking loose onto U.S. 50 seeing much less traffic I sort of felt that I had made the right choice. The possible shortcut was probably not effective for this trip.

This all reminded me that true Christians must persevere. Jesus said in Matthew 10:22, "... he that endureth to the end shall be saved."

We will be coming under more intense pressure before Christ returns and the enemy will offer us a different route. Let us determine to stay on the path created by Christ. For those who are not committed to Christ, consider changing routes now while there is time, choosing Eternal Life as your destination.