Stuck in the Mud

Man is it easy to get stuck in the mud. This past summer, I was parking my car at a buddy's house getting ready to leave for the beach. It was around 2AM and we were so hype that the beach trip finally made it out of the group chat. My buddy told me to park my car behind a shed in his yard so that it wouldn't be in the way for the week we were gone. I pulled behind the shed and into the grass, and all of a sudden felt the front tires of my car drop into a small ditch. I threw it into reverse and tried backing up. I just dug a deeper hole for my car to sit in, spinning my tires. My buddy came outside and tried to push my car while I gave it throttle, but it was too stuck for him to have any effect. We decided we'd have to use the tractor to pull it out.

This may sound like it got really easy, really quick, but on the contrary; my car's tow hook is in the front, and the removable tow hook that was supposed to be in the back just so happened to not be there. We headed into his dad's shop and began looking for a correctly sized bolt to use as a makeshift tow hook. We looked for at least an hour, through all of the tool boxes and trash cans and corners, just praying that there was going to be something that would work. None of the bolts we found worked. There's a couple that were close, but none that'd get 'er done.

Right when we were about to give up at 3AM and just leave, our other friend who had been eating wings inside the house for the past hour decided he was a little worried that we had taken an hour to put my luggage in the trunk of the car we were taking. He came out and yelled down the driveway, "What are y'all doing??" At the same time, lights shined from behind him from the original friend's brother's truck coming up the driveway.

We explained the situation and how we'd been working on the problem for an hour to both of them. The brother asked why we didn't just try to push my car instead of working so hard to find another way. We told him that we did try it and that it was impossible. He said "Well you've got more people now. I bet if we all push, we could get it out." Needless to say, we gave it another try.

All 3 of them got to the front of the car and I sat down in the driver's seat, put the car in reverse, and told them to push. I floored the gas pedal, and my car shot backwards. I was free.

There's a lot of problems and situations in our lives that feel like our car is stuck in the mud right before something big is about to happen. Whether you're like me and ready to go to the beach with your car stuck in a ditch or if you're about to get a new house only to lose your job, feeling stuck is part of the human experience.

When we're stuck, it's so easy to do what me and my buddy did. It got hard, so we immediately started looking for options other than the most logical choice. We started trying to find a way to use the tractor rather than simply finding a way to get the car out as quick as possible. Our goal shifted from getting the car out of the ditch to using the tractor. We stopped prioritizing the actual goal and instead prioritized our 'redneck ingenuity'. It'd be a better story if we got to use the tractor, right? It'd be a better story if you figured it out on your own, right?

The reality is that God didn't create us to figure it out on our own. He created us to ask for help. In all honesty, it's a cooler story when you ask for help and you with 3-4 of your buddies figure out the best way to achieve the actual goal instead of deflecting into some random side quest. Our culture would like us to believe that asking for help is the easy way out, but is our culture really who we want to look to when we face problems? If you can think of a time that cultural trends pointed in a direction that glorified God and His design, shoot me an email asap.

Peter wasn't concerned with being cool when he stepped out into the water to walk to Jesus. As soon as he started to sink, he said, "Lord, save me!"  His end goal was to get to Jesus, and for Jesus to prove that He was who He said He was. It wasn't to prove that he was a bad dude and could walk on water. So what did Peter do? He didn't start dog paddling and try to find a way to make it on his own. He didn't turn around and attempt to get back into the boat. He prioritized the end goal. He asked for help. And in doing so, Peter achieved his end goal with the help of Jesus. That is such a cooler story than Peter getting thrown a donut and being told to remain calm and kick his feet. The story is better because the end goal was achieved no matter what.

All we want is to find a way to make the recovery seem smooth and calculated, like we'd planned it that way all along. All we want is to say that we picked ourselves up by the bootstraps and figured out how to get out of the hole we ended up in. Stop trying to find a way to use the tractor. Accomplish the end goal in the best way possible, even if that means asking for help. I promise it'll be a better story, and it'll probably honor God.