Look for Muddy Boots

 Good Morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

When I was young, I bought a canoe. One of the obvious things one does when canoeing is get into the canoe and out of the canoe. 

I had gotten out of the canoe to look at some mucky stuff in the reeds at the lake's edge.

I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw a sword in the water and I thought I could be king!

Don't laugh; it could happen.

I didn't find a sword, but I did find a bag of sweet tarts floating in the water. Does that qualify for a watery tart? I'm not sure, but it might!

As I got to the shore and tried to step out, I found myself mired in the mud. I had sunk halfway up my shin, and my boots were quite stuck as the suction increased as I tried to pull my foot out. The harder I pulled, the more suction there seemed to be!

Being stuck in the mud is quite the experience. As I stood there wondering how I would get out of the current predicament that I found myself in, I began to think.

You know what happens when I begin to think. Soon I was in wonderment and eventually ended up pondering, and because I have trouble focusing, I started to ponder all sorts of stuff. 

I began to ponder how being stuck in the mud is like being stuck in other areas of your life. I began to think about how I had been:

• Resistant to change at times in my life.
• Stuck on a particular way of thinking.
• Stuck on a particular way of being.
• Stuck in unforgiveness.
• Stuck in depression and anxiety.

I thought about many things; after all, I had a lot of time on my hands, being hopelessly stuck in the mud. 

Eventually, someone came by and helped me get unstuck from the mud I was in. 

As I walked up to shore, my rescuer looked at my boots and said, "those are some muddy boots you've got there. 

I looked down, and sure enough, I had a lot of gooey black swamp mud all over my boots. 

I looked back up at my rescuer and said, "How did you know how to get me out of the mud?"

My rescuer said, "Oh, I have been stuck before. You learn a lot about how to get unstuck as you go through life."

As time went by in my life, I often thought about that day in the mud. How I had been hopelessly stuck and how someone came along and helped me. 

I learned a lot about being stuck in the mud.

I now know how to get unstuck from the mud. 

When I come across others that are stuck in the mud, I do my best to help them get unstuck. 

As I paddle my canoe across the lake of life, I look for muddy boots. 

When I see someone with muddy boots, I know they have traveled through a period of stuckness, but now they are free from the mud.

People with muddy boots seem to have a way about them; they tend to not get wrapped around the axle about the little stuff, and most things in life are little stuff. 

Do you have muddy boots?

Do you know someone who does?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger