Being Stuck

By Mark Chatfield

Last year I went for a ride with my 34 year-old-daughter in her SUV.  Kim lives in Northern Virginia and is a real-estate appraiser.  Part of her work calls for her to take photographs of properties that are comparable to the place being appraised and this trip was for that purpose.  Since she was taking pictures from the vehicle, I was driving.

The place we needed to photograph was off the road several hundred feet and back in the woods.  I pulled off the main road on to a very narrow one-lane path and drove back in toward the gate to the property.  After taking a few pictures, we realized that either we would have to drive through the gate onto private property, or we would have to put the SUV in reverse and back out the winding path.  I decided to back out. 

All was fine until we had almost made it to the main road.  The utility company had been installing a pipe under the narrow drive and before I knew it, the left rear wheel had dropped off the pavement and had no traction whatsoever.  We were stuck. 

That was not the first time I have been stuck. 

When I was about ten years old I had climbed up on a huge boulder at the City of Rocks near my hometown of Deming, New Mexico.  I found that although climbing up was not so difficult, getting down meant a jump of about six feet and I did not know how to do that without breaking my leg.  Later in life I found myself stuck by wanting to serve God but not knowing how to break some bad behavior.  Then there were the times when I ran out of money and still needed to buy food.  Now that I am retired, I realize that much of life involves being stuck.  Unlike the physical condition, however, I get stuck spiritually and often don’t even know it. 

What if my daughter and I lost traction while backing out of that driveway and instead of noticing the dilemma, we just continued to behave as though we were not stuck?  I would go on looking over my right shoulder out the back window.  The engine would continue to run.  The accelerator pedal would continue to control the engine.  But we would not move, we would just sit there and spin our wheel.  Pretty silly.  Right? 

Some of us get stuck in hate-think.  We get offended at something that someone said or at something we think we heard him or her say.  From that time on, we can’t even look them in the eye much less speak to them.  The relationship we had has come to a halt and we are spinning our wheels without any progress.  “That’s just the way it is,” is our explanation.  We are stuck.  What on earth do we think Jesus meant when He told us to love even our enemies?  We can’t even show common courtesy to our own family members sometimes. 

I often find myself mired down in a lack of faith.  Usually my wheel falls off the edge when I am backing through life and someone asks me to do something (teach, for example) that will put my public image at risk.  What if I say something wrong?  What if I can’t answer a question?  What if I can’t remember how to find the book of Ezra when I need to read that scripture?  Before I know it, I have made an excuse that is not really true or I have honestly begged off because I’m sure someone else can do a better job of teaching.  I may think I’m still making progress, but I’m stuck. 

God does not want His people to be stuck.  

• Not stuck in the basic principles:  Heb 6:1 “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”
• Not stuck in fear:  De 1:21 “Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.”
• Not stuck in false doctrine:  Jas 1:16 “Do not err, my beloved brethren.”
• Not stuck in prejudice:  1Pe 1:17 “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:”
• Not stuck in selfishness or laziness or vain efforts, or anger or violence or partiality or hypocrisy:  Jas 2:13-17
• Not stuck in indecision:  Heb 10:23 “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;”
• Not stuck in covetousness:  Heb 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
• Not stuck in faithless living:  Heb 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Take a look around.  Look through the windshield of your life – out to the terrain of those you know and love.  Is everything standing still?  Do you feel any movement?  Are you encountering any bumps in the road?

Perhaps you are stuck.

Part 2 – Getting out of the rut

I was going to leave this article there, but “Perhaps you are stuck,” is not a particularly uplifting place to stop.

Kim and I quickly discovered that we were going nowhere.  It was getting late and I was getting hungry.  There was no one around to help pull us out and we had no tools, much less a shovel.  Since I was the Dad, I put all my engineering skill into practice and found a 6-foot long broken tree limb for a tool.  Since the utility company had left the excavated dirt by the hole they had dug, I used the limb to move the dirt into the hole under and around the dangling wheel.  After a little tamping and prying with no one in the vehicle, I asked Kim to get in and try to move the SUV.  With just a little traction, the wheel had sufficient traction to engage and we were out – on our way to McDonald’s. 

If we do not know that we are stuck in life, we will remain stuck.  First examine your life.  Is it dynamic?  Are you moving?  Are you making progress?  If not, you need to start looking around for a tool to get out of the mire.  There is a difference between having many years of experience as a Christian and having one year’s experience repeated over many years.  If your Christian life consists of just “going to church,” then you are stuck. 

Once you see the need to get free, get to work.  You may be surprised to learn that there is really very little inescapable quicksand.  Just a little leverage can get you back on the road.  What was it that the lad David did when Israel was all but defeated just by the sight of Goliath? 

Christians, of all peoples, have no reason to be stuck.