Out Our Way: Stuck in the mud - Psalm 40:1-2

Out our way, looks can be deceiving. Charlie and I were riding fence for a friend of ours, and one corner section was blocked by thorn bushes and trees. There was a cow path through the trees but the overhang was so low I could not follow on Doc, so I dismounted and walked the trail myself. It was a nice cool in the tunnel made of the thorny hedges and overhanging branches — and I was glad to see the trail flattened out into a wider bare patch deep within. 

However, in two strides I found the sandy patch wasn’t sand at all, but mud. It was part of a creek bed that looked dry and firm but was actually all mud beneath a thin layer of dry sand. The mud itself went a good 3 feet deep, and when I stepped onto the sand, my leg went down almost to the knee. Try as I might, I could not get loose. 

However, one of the advantages of cowboy boots is that you can usually slide your foot out of them easily when you need to — and that is what I did. There was a big rock nearby, so I was able to slide my foot out of the stuck boot and hop to the rock. From there I could make another small jump to the dry land I had been on before when I was following the trail. I eventually retrieved my boot by taking my rope, tying one end to the boot strap that was still visible and reachable from the rock, dallying the other end around the saddle horn, and letting Doc pull it out.

When I was in college and a part of the Purdue Glee Club, we sang an old hymn based on Psalm 40:1-2 that went, “He has taken my feet from the mire and the clay, and placed them on the Rock of Ages.” I don’t think I actually sang it that day, but I sure remembered it. For I had indeed been literally stuck in “the mire and the clay” and “placed on the rock,” from which I not only escaped my dilemma, but managed to rectify the situation.

Over the years, I have found myself bogged down and stuck in “the mire and the clay” of unexpected trials. Yet somehow or other, it seems God manages to lift me out of these bogs and place me on the solid rock. Another great Hymn — “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” I confess the process is not always quick or easy, and even after He pulls me out, the job is not necessarily finished.

I got out of the mud and onto the rock quick enough, but I was still barefoot and still had to retrieve my boot. It took time and wasn’t too comfy walking through the thorn trees back up the trail to Doc, get my rope, limp back down to tie it onto my boot , and then go back up again to dally the rope and back Doc up. Then I had to hobble back down to retrieve the boot and start scraping all the heavy mud off it so I could wear it again.

God has pulled me out of the mire and clay and set me on the rock several times, but He has never left me there. Sometimes, the bog is hidden and we step into it without warning. Sometimes we walk into the quagmire simply because we aren’t paying attention. Regardless, after He delivers us we have some recovery work to do and He helps with that as well … unless we are so foolish as to jump off the rock and back into the swamp, or so devastated and self-absorbed by the incident we fail to give thanks for the rock and remember the Deliverer. I confess I have spent time standing on the rock after being pulled from the morass, and fail to notice the rock. I am so busy bemoaning the bog I WAS in that I fail to celebrate that I am no longer in it. But eventually, the Spirit directs my focus to the new reality — directing my focus away from the “sinking sand” that was once pulling me down, to the rock which is now holding me up … and to the One Who lifted me up onto it.

Blessings!

Brother John Bruington