Carla told me not to trust the gas gauge on her car. She told me that I needed to get some fuel before I went very far. “Very far” is a relative term. My mind was mulling over her words as I slowly glided into a parking place at the Rosebud Inn. I was out of gas.

I was in the middle of Branson, Missouri. I was four miles away and about four hundred feet below where Carla was waiting. I had no money. She had no vehicle. I was in a bind. It was all uphill from here and the hill was extremely steep. That’s just the way it is when you run out of gas in Branson.

That’s the way it is when you run out of gas spiritually. I know, I’ve been there. You think you’ve got it all figured out. You think that you can go just a little further and all of a sudden you sputter and faulter and you glide to a stop. You waited too long to “refuel” and now you are stuck. You are in a spiritual funk. What do you do?

Start the climb. Separate yourself from everything except God. Turn off the TV, get out of the bed earlier, pick up your Bible, get on your knees, take a walk, go for a run, just leave whatever you are doing and do whatever it takes to get into the presence of God. That’s what you do when you run out of fuel in your car; you leave what you have and seek what you do not have.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55.6) I don’t recommend running out of gas. But if you do remember that it isn’t fatal. All you have to do is refuel. I hope the hill you have to climb is not too steep.