Comments on the "Miry Clay"

Those of you who live in former glacial areas like Michigan know what it means to have a backyard that's full of clay.  This dense, sticky substance remained after the glaciers retreated and soil was deposited over it.  It's gray and slippery and can actually be formed into objects that will harden and last a long time.  I still have a little clay bowl that my daughter Monica made for me when she was age 4!

Although this was fun stuff to mix into our mud pies, it's not so fun if you need to walk across a muddy, clay-filled field.  The clay layer is so thick that you sink in when it's wet and slippery.  It's a tenacious substance that sucks your feet down so that you can barely move.  When you try to take a step, you just lose your shoe!  All in all, a very difficult way to travel!

The same can be said to occur as we walk across the field of life...At times the walk is lovely and the path is easy.  At other times we must trudge through the miry clay that tries to suck us ever downward.  As we attempt to navigate the circumstances of our lives, it is inevitable that there be some clay in the way!  Boy do I wish it weren't so!  It's so much nicer to just flit lightly from day to day, no obstacle to circumvent, nothing to drag us down...
The reality is somewhat different though.  We run, we walk, we flit, we soar, and we trudge!

How can we possibly get ourselves out of the clay?  How do we catch up with everyone else on the path after we've extricated ourselves?  They all keep walking forward when we get stuck!
How do we make sure we don't get stuck again?  Good questions!

It all has to do with focus.  Are we watching our steps carefully, making sure to follow God's path?  Or are we distracted by life, just looking all around like a toddler would?  That's a good way to get stuck!  Then what?   Do we just stay there, cry and whine, yell and scream?  Do we keep exclaiming: "how this could happen?"  Or do we purposefully work to extract the stuck limbs?  Do we depend on God for His strength or do we try to do this all on our own?  Hhmm...

How about catching up?  Once we are free from the clay, we need to run to catch up!  Running directly toward God, not stopping or turning side to side along the way!  Get up and go!

If we follow these lessons, does this guarantee that there will be no more clay in our path?  Nope!  It's always there, waiting to suck us down, hold us back, keep us from joining with others along the way, distracting us from the true purposes God has for us...

We need to be cautious,  need to know God's Word and be in prayer all the time, and need to listen to God's warnings about those clay bogs that lay just ahead!

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the LORD;

He turned to me and heard my cry. 

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire; mud

He set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.  

He put a new song in my mouth,

A hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear the LORD

and put their trust in Him.  NIV