Out Our Way: A boot, a rope, a horse - Psalm 2

Out our way, teamwork is often critical. There are things one cannot do alone and it is good to be reminded we are not alone.  

I have shared with you the story of the time I got my boot stuck in the mud while riding fence one time. To remind you, I was checking fence and there was a corner section behind a grove of thorn trees. Cattle had made a pathway through the thicket, but it was too narrow and low to ride, so I got off Doc and made my way along the cattle trail. I came to what appeared to be a dried out creek bed and stepped on rocks to get across until I came to a spot where no rocks were to be found. As I say, it looked solid, so I stepped off. Oops!

The sand on top was dry, but beneath it was wet mud. I stepped onto what I thought was a solid surface and sank to my knee. I was able to pull myself out of the gunk, but my boot remained firmly behind. I could not get it loose and break the suction that held it. Charlie was on the other side of the pasture, so I was alone. Or was I? Doc was still there and so was my rope. I hobbled back to Doc, dallied my rope around the horn, and went back. I had just enough rope to fasten to the boot tops. Then I had Doc pull. I didn’t have the strength to save my poor old stuck boot, but Doc and my rope did! I had Doc pull, the rope tightened, and then with a loud “pop” my boot came out.  

In the midst of the daily stories of corruption of power by politicians, media moguls, and the nation being divided by those who prosper on hate, fear, and the manipulation of the gullible — we are as stuck in the gunk as my old boot. Try as we might to free ourselves from the morass in which we find ourselves, we fail at every turn. We are helpless and alone! Or are we?

Consider the parable of my old boot, a good rope, and a stout cowpony. I am the boot stuck in the quicksand. The Holy Spirit connects me to God just as my rope connected me to Doc. I haven’t the power, strength, or means to free myself, but God does. And by faith I ask Him to do so.  

Historically, the women and men of faith who, as stuck as I am, grabbed hold of God’s Hand and were pulled free. Abraham and Sarah took hold and were freed from their enemies. Moses, Aaron and Miriam took hold and God hauled them and the nation of Israel out of Egypt. Look at Esther who saved her people in Persia because she reached out in faith and asked God to pull them out. Time and again, the loud “ POP!” of the “stuck boot” being freed from the grip of the muck that held it prisoner is recorded in history.   

The story has continued. Look at Peter rescued from Herod’s clutches — at Paul who survived untold hardships and yet managed to bring the Gospel to the Mideast and eventually Europe. Look at the untold thousands who continued that work. Go to Red Square in Moscow and hear the bells of the cathedrals the Marxists and Communists sought to silence forever through pogroms and gulags. Go to Beijing and discover the growing bodies of faith Mao failed to silence. Though the PRC still has the gulags of the Stalin era and regularly casts believers and others for “thought crimes”into them, the faith remains strong and growing.

Our media and many powerful political groups chose to ignore Stalin’s murder of 20-plus million Ukrainians in the ’30s — they also downplayed the Holocaust in the ’40s. But as a wonderfully faithful Russian priest reminded us, “ Marx, Lenin, Hitler and Stalin all sought to kill off God’s people. They are all dead but we are still here!”

Yes, the powerful who seek to hold the world in its clutches, like the mud held my boot, gloat over their power and their ability to persuade the gullible to step into the quicksand and be caught by it forever. It’s an old story, oft repeated throughout history, but so is the parable of the boot, rope and horse. Sooner or later, folks realize they can’t pull the boot out by themselves. Then they remember “ole Doc and the rope” waiting up the trail. They reach out and take hold — and with a loud “POP!” history repeats itself.

Yup, we are stuck in the muck right now. No question about it. But we remember the lesson of the boot, rope and horse parable and look for God to pull us out. He always has and always will. Read your history, then reach out in confidence for the rope and let God pull us free.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John 

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write “Out Our Way.” He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].