We’ve probably all experienced it – that long road trip with the family.  You have everything planned and you hit the road with a full tank of gas, ready to go.  But twenty minutes down the highway you hear that voice from the backseat.  The questions start to come.  “Are we there yet? How much longer? Can we get something to eat?”  Pretty soon the questions become complaints and the complaints turn into whining, until you are trying to remember just why you are taking this trip.

Every parent has been there.  Questions from the backseat.  You come to expect them.  Every journey to a destination includes them.  In a way the same is true for the journey of faith.  Just like kids on a trip we get tired of the journey.  We want to know when we can stop.  We get tired of serving.  We get tired of waiting.  We get tired of the people we’re traveling with.

We don’t like the preaching or the music or the classes that are being offered.  And we grumble. The Israelites did. They complained about the food, about the place they were traveling, and about their ‘driver’ Moses.

Grumbling does not set well with God.  In fact, our grumbling can lead to our wandering.  When offered the chance to leave Kadesh and enter the Promised Land, the Israelites listened to the fear-filled report from ten spies instead of the faith-full report of Joshua and Caleb.

Kadesh means “Spring of Decision” and it was time for them to make one.  They were in the right place to make the right decision.  But the majority made the wrong one.  The people wished they had died in Egypt or in the desert instead of facing the challenges of the Promised Land.  So God told them they would get their wish.  They would wander in the desert until the unbelieving generation died out.

And they did.  They wandered in the Wilderness for forty years.  And their children were impacted by their decisions. Did you catch that?  Their choices impacted the next generation.

The decisions you make affect those around you, just like the decisions the Israelites made at Kadesh. You can decide to grumble or be thankful.  You can decide to turn away from God or turn toward God. You can decide to wander without purpose through life or follow God’s vision for your life.

Just don’t forget that those in the backseat will be affected by your decisions.