Do you ever feel stuck? Imagine yourself in Noah’s sandals—floating around on a big boat for 375 days (9,000 hours!) with your entire family (including some in-laws) and at least two of every kind of critter in God’s creation. Now beloved, that’s stuck! Noah could’ve made his own Southwest Airlines commercial, “Wanna get away?!”

And get this—God had to tell him to get off the boat. Sure, he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded, and he even peeked out the window of the ark to see that the ground was dry. But, he stayed on that boat an extra fifty-seven days after the earth was completely dry. Only after God told him did he disembark (Genesis 8:16).

Why? I guess we could understand it like this—Noah was so obedient to God that he wasn’t getting off the boat he’d been ordered to board until the exact reverse or “release” from that assignment came. I find that remarkable.

So, how ‘bout that situation in which you feel stuck—a stressful or low-paying job, a seemingly dead-end ministry setting, a declining neighborhood, a relationship with recurring problems? If we’re in such a situation due to our own design, we should feel free to “get off the boat” as soon as we want. But, if we’re there as the result of an assignment from the Lord, we don’t have that freedom—we should stay, even though the “coast looks clear,” until God says, “You’re released.” In the meantime, the key is to focus on being faithful, which is why God spared Noah to start with. “Enter the ark,” God said, “for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time” (Genesis 7:1). Peter demonstrated faith by getting out of his boat. Noah, however, showed faith by staying in his. ReFresh!