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Stuck in the Muck

trib-al's picture
Submitted by trib-al on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 11:18

 

     Several years ago I spent an evening watching family slides with my parents. Now, that is a rollercoaster experience. One minute you’re thinking, okay, maybe I wasn’t such a nerd after all. The next minute you’re groaning with self-loathing. One particular slide comes to mind as I consider further the concept of thinking differently. In the slide I was covered head to toe with a thick layer of mud. You can clearly see the whites of my eyes and a grin displaying all but one tooth, which seems to have gone missing. Everything else was covered in mud. Seeing the slide brought back the moment. I was six years old, a newbie to country living, and had discovered the joy of leaping out of trees into knee depth mud. Let me explain.  Each year the farmer that owned the orange orchard surrounding our house flooded the orchard for irrigation purposes. At age six I had only lived in Scottsdale, Arizona and inner city Los Angeles, California. Neither provided a kid with access to vast amounts of mud and trees were sparse, to say the least. One morning I woke up to what was literally a lake of mud, and being small-brained, I couldn’t resist diving in. I even tried to sink deeper in the muck hoping to get stuck. Not sure why. Sometimes there’s no explaining the thoughts that find their way through the mind of a child. As an adult, I can assure you that getting stuck in the muck is not a desire I share with my younger self. But, what do you when your whole life, from one day to the next, seems stuck in the muck? How do you handle that sinking feeling that your life is slowly slipping into quicksand?
     King Saul, ruler of Israel, was handling it by hiding in the shade of a pomegranate tree. His situation was dire. The Philistine military had invaded Israel with 3000 chariots, 6000 charioteers, and Samuel chapter 13 tells us, soldiers as numerous as the “sand on the seashore.” As if that weren’t enough, the people of Israel had abandoned their homes and towns to hide in caves and thickets. But wait, there’s more. Saul’s military might consisted of soldiers armed with farming tools. Only two people in all of Israel possessed a sword and a spear – King Saul and his son, Jonathan.
     Now Samuel, God’s prophet had relayed instructions from God Himself, telling Saul to sit tight for seven days. But, Saul couldn’t simply sit still and trust God. In fact, the more he looked at the problem facing Israel, the larger the problem became and the smaller God became, until Saul decided he had to take matters into his own hands and act not just as King, but priest, as well. He was in the middle of offering up a sacrifice when Samuel arrived. That’s when matters got worse and the muck thickened. By the time Prophet Samuel left, Saul had been informed that the kingdom was being taken from him and rewarded to another who was a man after God’s own heart… someone who thought differently and trusted God without question.  Because Saul could not think out of the box and trust God, he retreated to the pomegranate tree and for all intents and purposes, was pouting.
     Jonathan, Saul’s son, had stood by watching all his father did. But, he was not in agreement with his father. Jonathan thought differently and focused not on the problem, but on God instead. Going to his armor bearer, a young man that Jonathan trusted with his very life, he said, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side” (Samuel 14:1). Later, in verse six, Jonathan is quoted as saying, “Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or few.” The armor bearer (one of the most courageous un-named characters in the Bible) said, because he too, thought differently, “Do all you have in mind… go ahead, I’m with you, heart and soul.” To make a long story short, they attacked the Philistines, killing twenty enemy soldiers in a matter of minutes, creating such confusion that the Philistines began battling one another. Meanwhile, stuck in the muck, unwilling to think differently, Saul took the time to take a headcount to see who had left the camp without his permission.
     Unless we learn to think differently when facing trouble in our lives, we will never see the miraculous things God can do. What do you when your whole life, from one day to the next, seems stuck in the muck? Think and speak; faith. Then step out of the muck, trusting that God is bigger than any problem you and I might face.
     Is life easy? Read carefully my answer. NO! I have gained and lost more in my lifetime than most. The choices for me are simple. I can swing out of bed each day and face trouble on my own or I can swing out of bed each day and into the embrace of the Father, letting Him take my anxieties, struggles and perplexities. I can trust Him to provide solutions to what appear to be impossible obstacles or try to go it alone. It’s that simple.
     The created world around us, however, is anything but simple. It is complex and wonderful all at once, as is the Creator. And yet, there are invaluable, seemingly simplistic lessons that can be drawn from creation. One such lesson is the life cycle of the dragonfly. They spend the majority of their life span beneath the water, feeding and dwelling in the muck. Some of the larger species can be in the muck for 3-5 years before surfacing, breaking out of their own skin and spreading their wings to enjoy the light of day. This stage of life in the light usually lasts only 3-6 months. Sad, when you think about it. All that time in the muck when there is a vast and beautiful world to enjoy above them…
     I sometimes wonder if God doesn’t feel the same way about us – sad. He has waiting for us each day, adventures in the Kingdom of Light, in addition to a plethora of miracles, both large and small, and we still have a tendency to choose life in the muck, focusing not on the daily blessings, instead – we focus on the muck. All the while, even in the darkest of moments, the salient beauty of creation and the love of God, surround us.
~ Pastor Al