BEING LIFTED OUT OF OUR RUTS
…I HAVE set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
Deuteronomy 30:19
My life seemed to be going somewhere. My sons and I were having some financial struggles as well. Then a job offer came that seemed above and beyond my capabilities, but with good income potential, though some travel was involved. I was given a week to decide, and no matter how I weighed the facts, I couldn’t get the courage to say either “yes” or “no.”
Then one Saturday afternoon, I went to the mountains and sat by a wide rushing stream. At my feet was a small, deep pool. A stick came floating by and was drawn into the eddy where the continual centripetal pull of the water started it on an unending pattern of going around and around.
As I watched it moving monotonously around and around, I began to think, That is how I am, like that stick, just going ‘round and ‘round in the same old rut. I wondered how soon the strong river currents would pull the stick back out into the main flow. I began counting the revolutions. When I got to 495, I knew that stick would never get out on its own. I jumped up, grabbed the stick from the whirlpool and tossed it into the onrushing current.
“Oh, God,” I said, “I’m just like that stick. Please lift me out of the rut I’m in.”
At once I knew what I had to do: Say “yes” to a new challenge, “yes” to new opportunities to learn and grow, “yes” to life active instead of life passive. God had brought me the opportunity, but I had to make the choice for myself. No other person would shove me into it as I had done with the stick.
I bless the day I sat by that pool, for that job brought me, not only good in my professional and material life, but spiritual blessings beyond measure!
Dear Lord, thank You for the courage to leap into deep water.
~~ Phyllis Walk