Are ya Stuck?

He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.

~ Psalm 40:2, NLT
For many years I drove delivery trucks, trash trucks, pick up trucks just about any kind of truck except 18 wheelers. I made deliveries as far away as El Paso (I live in Austin Texas, so that was quite a trip). I delivered kitchen and bath cabinets for a company to new construction homes some years ago. While doing this I drove a 24 foot "bobtail" straight truck. One of the construction companies we sold and delivered cabinets to was a "we build on your lot" type company. Every order would have map attached to it, because most of the time you would not be able to find the property without one. Very seldom were these houses in any kind of neighborhood. The owners wanted seclusion and privacy and they may have owned 10 or more acres and their house was being constructed right in the middle of there property. Many times this property had never been accessed by any type of trucks at all. I would have to follow the ruts left by the cement truck that had been there to lay the foundation, or the lumber truck that had come to deliver the wood for the framework. There was one area down southeast of San Antonio that I dreaded going to, it was a "Subdivision" that had lots FROM 25 acres. The thing I hated about it the most though is that it was sand, everywhere you looked there was sand. If I stayed on the "road" that had been kinda established by all the delivery and construction trucks, then I usually was alright, but if I had to turn the truck around and get my wheels off the "beaten" path, I had to really be careful because I would get stuck in the sand. I know of many times I had to end up calling a tow truck to come and pull me out of the sand, this did NOT make my boss very happy, as it was expensive.
Over my 5 years or so of working for this company, I believe I had to call a tow truck about 20 times. 12 of those, I think, were in this one area.

I drove a trash truck for around 15 years. We all hated rainy days, working in the rain was not very fun, the water that collected in trash cans and dumpsters flooded our truck and leaked out the back all over us all the time, dirty smelly "trash water". BUT the main reason I hated working on rainy days was going to the dump (sorry, Land Fill). If you have ever been to a large land fill, then you know what a mess it is. Large trash trucks coming and going all the time, large bulldozers pushing the mountains of trash left by these trucks as we would empty our loads. But a dump is very muddy, because these bulldozers push dirt on top of the piles of trash after the spread them out. There is a system that landfills are required to follow, different layers of different types of dirt below and above the trash. New areas of the dump are used everyday, it seemed to spread the trash around. One day you may dump your load over here, then the next you are way back over there. You never knew. But when you backed your truck into the dump zone of the day, guess what was below your wheels? Yep, trash, dirt and if it was raining mud, lots and lots of mud. The only thing good about getting stuck at the landfill was that there were bulldozers everywhere to push, or pull you out. I never got out of the truck without my rain type boots.

Have you ever tried to walk in deep mud? You have to lift your foot all the way out of the stuff, up into the clear before you can take another step and sink it back down into the gooze. It is very tiring and seems to take forever to get anywhere. Snow or sand can be almost as bad. But at least snow is prettier. If you were going to walk along the beach on a beautiful day, where would you want to walk? In the surf where there is wet sand, or up above the surf where the sand is although not dry, much more solid and easier to walk on top of? You see TV shows or perhaps your lucky enough to live near a beach and see this in person, but of people who run along the beach, where are they running, in the break of the waves coming to shore? Of course not.

I live in Texas, as I have stated before, central Texas. I am not very familiar with winter, I mean REAL winter. We get rain, cold rain, we even get ice every couple of years, REAL ice that freezes on the roadways. But snow? Very seldom. And when we do get snow, it is usually melted by lunch time, so you have to have your snowball fights early or you'll miss out. Make fun of us "Southerners" all you want, but we do not know how to drive in the snow, because we don't have snow. I spent about 4 months near Chicago going to "A" school while in the Navy years ago. It was the "Great Blizzard" of 1978-1979. They set records for the amount of snow they got that winter. I flew out of Orlando Florida, after boot camp, and flew straight to Chicago. Talk about shock. I arrived in Chicago with one coat, and not a very heavy one. Four months later I flew to San Diego with snow boots, a very heavy parka, heavy socks, a few scarfs, 2-3 winter knit hats, and a few pair of nice heavy warm gloves. Never used any of that stuff again. But I will never forget walking around that base in Great Lakes Illinois , on top of 2-3 feet of snow on the way to the Movie theater, or the Exchange store. Walking on top of the snow that had piled up and been packed down from hundreds if not thousands of sailors walking and thus packing it down was one thing, but fresh snow that fell and began piling up and covering everything getting deeper and deeper, this was hard to walk through. There were times when you would take a step and you leg would sink down to where snow came up to your butt. Talk about hard and slow walking. I will never forget these experiences, as it was my first and last "Real" Winter in that area.

OK,so I have set up a picture that has us trying to walk in mud, snow or sand. What happens when we try and walk through any of these? We slow down, get tired easy, struggle, want to give up sooner, because it is hard. Read Psalms 40:2 again. It is at the top of the page, go ahead, I'll wait for ya right here. OK, read it again? What did it say? " He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the MUD and MIRE. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along." WHY do we sometimes continue to walk in the "Mud and Mire" (sand, snow and mud), when Jesus Christ told us He would lift us out of it, and set our feet on solid ground? Then once we are on solid ground, He goes on and tells us He will steady me as I walk along. WHAT are we doing walking along the beach in waist deep water, trying to get to our ultimate goal, Heaven? Look up along the beach beyond the waves, there see them, Christians running along at a brisk pace on "SOLID GROUND"? Why do we wonder off the beaten path, and find ourselves getting stuck in the mud or sand? What makes us want to try that over there, or see what is going on over there? We look at the goings own over there, BUT we don't notice the ground is wet, slippery, muddy, sandy, has no footing, and we find it very hard to walk there, let alone to get back. I am reminded of a children's song from my Children Church days:"....be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little feet where you go.........." Before we take a step, look down at the ground and see what your stepping into.

God has promised to guide us, to keep us on the solid foundation, to keep us on solid ground as we walk this earth, to steady us as we weaken and get tired.................WHY do we constantly waiver from His path?



So the next time you walk along the beach, walk up a little higher, up where the sand has been packed down and it is easier to get a footing. That is unless you want to walk in the wet sand and water, sometime that is fun, at the BEACH that is.