We spent a good part of our last four-wheeler trip up Red Oak Ridge picking our way around the ruts. You’ve seen them. Those deep kind that come from logging rigs or hunters in pickup trucks that hit the same tracks over and over. The road is dotted with clay pockets along the way and when the rain storms come and a shallow rut fills with water it becomes a pool of mucky mud. Every time a vehicle passes through they dig the ruts deeper and wider.
Sometimes drivers will get stuck in the mess and the first thing they do is shift to a lower gear and try to spin themselves out. But spinning usually just slings mud everywhere. Then they rock backward, then forward, over and over, but it often makes them sink deeper. They have no choice but to call for a more powerful machine to come and dig away the mud and pull them out. Then the rut must be filled with rocks to stabilize the ground and make it fit to travel over once more.
Don’t let yourself get stuck in a spiritual rut. You know what I mean. A deep rut you’ve made yourself that has been carved out by going through the same motions time and time again. Same old agenda, same old songs, same old prayers, same old, same old, until one day you realize you’ve lost your joy. You’ve stopped reading the Bible, and your prayers seem to hit the ceiling and bounce back at you. Then a spiritual storm comes and fills the rut with water and you find yourself spinning in the muck and mire.
You try shifting to a lower gear (giving up your church responsibilities), hoping some rest and recuperation will spin you out of your dilemma, but you find ourselves just slinging mud everywhere. Then you try rocking backward, then, forward (staying away from church for a few weeks, feeling guilty, going back for a few weeks, then repeating the cycle). You’re not getting anywhere.
Stop spinning and rocking back and forth and call for the Power Machine-God’s Word and the Holy Spirit,-to come and dig away the mud and pull you out of the hole you’re in. Then, fill the ruts with the Rock, Christ Jesus, to stabilize the ground and make it solid. Then you can go on your way rejoicing once again.
“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.” Psalm 40:2.
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