WHEN YOUR SITUATION SEEMS HOPELESS

In one of the Psalms the psalmist writes, “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire”, can you relate to what David is saying? I recall reading an article once that was in the Readers Digest about a couple of guys who went Duck hunting in a rural area in the northeastern part of Anchorage Alaska called Duck Flat. As they both got out of their boat and begin to trudge through the thick mud, one of the men got his wader stuck and hollered out for his friend to help.  Upon returning back to his friend, they both realized that the one stuck in the mud had actually stepped into a patch of quick sand, caused by Alaskan glaciers that forms a loose, glacial silt like consistency of fine talcum powder. While it may appear to look like mud, it is far more deadly. The two friends had hunted those forest together for many years, and knew exactly what they were faced with and they also knew that they were working against time to get him out. Not only were the two men working against a spongy ground that was determined to sink the man that was stuck; they were also working against the Alaskan tide that was among the fasted, most dangerous tides in the world. After trying to retrieve his friend from the slimy pit to no avail, the man told his friend that he would have to go and get help from the Air Force Base and promised to be back. Upon reaching the Air Force Base a special rescue team was scrambled to the site of the sinking friend and they began his rescue. Every effort they made seemed only to worsen the situation. The helicopter pilot tried many different approaches in lifting the stranded man out of the mud and mire. But he grew discontented as each effort failed. Upon each attempt to hoist him up, the stranded man would signal franticly for release; his eyes wide with pain. You can only imagine as how helpless they all felt as they saw this young man, with his whole life ahead of him slowing vanishing into the slimy pit, never to see him again. By this time, the mud was up to his armpits. The tide could come in at any time, and all their efforts would have been in vain. The water was quickly rising at a rate of one foot every twelve minutes. As all hope seemed to be lost, the stranded man felt a sudden shift and when he did, his feet was released from the waders and he was pulled free at last. Wow! I don’t know about you, but that is a gripping story if ever I have heard one.

Like the man stranded in the slimy pit, David the man that wrote, “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire” also understood the freedom of being released from a pit that was slowing taking him under. While David’s pit may not have been a true pit of quicksand; the feelings he had, were so strong that he felt that he could compare them to what it must be like to actually being in stuck in a pit, just about to sink. Whatever it was that David was feeling at the time, we know that his troubles seemed to be beyond even the greatest human effort that he had access to at that time. His own efforts proved only to be futile. Like the sinking man, David found that the more he struggled over his situation the worse it became and the more his situation drew him deeper into the pit.  

In his writing David was trying to create and convey his deep understanding of what it is like to plunge down into despair and what can appear to be, an impossible situation. The things that caused David to feel that way could have been from his own personal sin in his life, or from the effects of opposition from others be it friend or foe….it could have been from a military defeat or simply the effect of choices made during the course of battle or war.

Not really knowing the cause is actually to our advantage though. Because without knowing what it was that made David feel that way, it allows us a window of sympathy and compassion to know that while others have also gone thru trying times, we are encouraged that we too can come out on the other side freed, once the trouble passes.

Where is your place of absolute impossibility today? In a relationship, a habit, a wrong choice or a relapse of a past sin that you cannot seem to get over?  Is someone opposing you? You never meant it to become what it has become. At first it was harmless, nonthreatening, but now you are stuck in it and feel the mud and mire covering you with darkness and depression. You wish there was a way out!

If so, may I tell you that those are the very things that God is best at! Pulling us up and rescuing us when we cannot rescue ourselves. However, for Him to get to us, we must move out of His way and allow Him to work the way He wants to in our lives and not in accordance to how we want to instruct Him to do. The secret to receiving His help is found in Psalm 40:1 and says, “I waiting patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry”. You see the problem is that God knows that we need Him; we are the ones that need to learn that concept and learning comes so many times through trials and tribulations, pain and even heartbreak.

If God places you in an impossible situation, He has a divine plan for your rescue. But you must call on Him, and wait for Him to show up….for He is never too late for those that cry out to Him with the right heart attitude. So, remember, when you cannot see a way out…look to Him, He has the tools to get you to safety.

Loving you today,
Hold Fast,
Bren