Sink Holes

(***note*** this picture was taken after he had already started winching the tractor out of the hole. He forgot to take the picture when he first got back down there with the winch.)

Yesterday I had a long over-due "girls day out" with an old friend visiting from North Carolina. Her husband is in town preaching a revival this week so she and I decided to spend some time catching up on the on the news of our two families.

Because of that, I was not home when hubby left for work. (As a dutiful wife I had already packed his lunch in his cooler before I left home yesterday morning. smile) After I came home in the afternoon and had put up a few things I had bought during the day, I came in here to check my email. Lying on my computer desk was hubby's camera. I immediately knew he had taken pictures of something that he wanted me to download for him!

When the pictures came up on the computer screen from the memory card I almost freaked out! It showed his old farm tractor practically standing on it's nose with the bush hog on the back sticking straight up in the air! Scary!

My first thought was, "I wonder how bad hubby was hurt when this happened?" And later when he called from work on his break and asked if I saw his camera on my desk the first thing I said was..."Are you all right???"

He laughed and said he was fine. He explained that he had been bush hogging down near our oldest son's deer stand and without any warning the front wheels of the tractor dropped out of sight! A sink hole he called it! Something that was not there the last time he drove over that field. Something that had been caused by all the extra rain we have had this year I suppose.He was able to come back to the house and get his 4x4 pickup with attached winch and pull the tractor out to firm soil again.

I could not help but think about how many times in my spiritual life I have been going along at a nice pace and all of a sudden...boom!.....I drop out of sight! Into some kind of worldly sink hole that I did not see coming! Something that wasn't there the last time I walked that same road. Something that may have been caused by my lack of staying in the Word of God or my lack of praying to seek God's direction before setting off down a certain path. Perhaps someone offends me and instead of guarding against any root of bitterness, I decide to hold a grudge against them. Perhaps someone deliberately hurts me and instead of turning the other cheek, I decide to hurt them back. Perhaps my quick temper flares up and instead of giving a soft answer to turn away wrath, I lash out unexpectedly to friends and loved ones! I am in a sink hole! I can't do much good as a Christian down in a hole can I? "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Romans 8: 8

What can I do? In myself I can do nothing! Neither could hubby make the tractor pull itself out of the sink hole yesterday! He had to go and get something strong enough to pull it out. So it is with me when I get into a spiritual "sink hole". I can't pull myself out! I have to call on the Lord for help. He IS strong enough to pull me out of any mess I get myself into! "I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." Psalm 40: 1-2

If you're in a spiritual mess today....down in a "sink hole" all covered with mud....call on the Lord and He will come and pull you out onto solid ground again! And not just plain ole solid ground....onto a Rock! The Rock of Ages!

Marilyn