Recently, I was traveling north through Kentucky on I-75. My GPS didn’t see it coming, but all of a sudden I found myself in a traffic jam. Nobody was able to move. The interstate was turned into a vast parking lot. After about twenty minutes, the GPS said, “Your route is no longer available.” I had never heard it say that before.
I didn’t know what caused the interstate closure. How long was this going to go on? Was it a wreck, construction, or a flood of some kind? All I knew was that a bunch of eighteen-wheelers surrounded me, and I wasn’t going anywhere. It was not a good time.
After about an hour, I walked around to see if I could find out what was happening. I thought that maybe one of the truck drivers knew something. I walked to the shoulder of the interstate and looked north. I saw one truck driver who had gotten out of his truck and was inspecting a couple of his tires. I headed towards him to see if he knew something.
Before I could ask him what was going on, he straightened up and said, “Aren’t you the guy from Dallas who talks about grace on his podcasts? I listen to you guys all the time while I travel the interstate. I also watch your videos.” From those podcasts, he said he knew I was from Kentucky, as was he.
He immediately said, “Can I ask you a question about repentance?” You could tell he had done a lot of listening. He referred to “Bob Wilkin’s view of repentance,” and wondered what the professors at Dallas Seminary thought. We were on the side of the interstate, having a pretty good theological discussion.
After discussing repentance, he said that he was frustrated with much of what he sees in Kentucky. He pointed out that many churches say the unbeliever is saved by grace through faith, but then say the unbeliever has to repent of his sins. If that’s the case, then faith is not enough. Plus, repentance is a work. That would mean eternal salvation is by works.
I couldn’t add anything to his commentary. All I said was, “Amen.”
As soon as I did, the trucks to the north of us revved their engines and started moving ahead very slowly. His truck and my car would soon be blocking the people behind us from moving. They were very eager to get going. We shook hands, said how much we enjoyed the conversation, and ran to our vehicles.
That whole episode was very encouraging. Often, we are told that GES is a “fringe” organization. Nobody listens to us. We are in an echo chamber.
My experience on the side of a road during a traffic jam shows that that is not the case. Being popular doesn’t mean that something is true. The message of grace is getting out. That was the best traffic jam I’ve ever been a part of.
