He brought me out!

One of my favorite blogs is written by a down-to-earth authoress whose posts always begin with a very relatable mishap from her own life and continue with what she’s learned from her mistakes. Well. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life. And therefore have plenty to share. The tricky part is admitting my failures and learning from them :P So here’s my attempt…

Spring is here, in case you haven’t noticed, {hello, mid-80’s in March!} and that means mowing season has also arrived. So, at work yesterday I was assigned the task of mowing the pasture fence lines. I {finally} started the mower and headed out to The Fourth Pasture. The sun was shining, the breeze was whistling through the trees, the grass was green, and it was a beautiful day  Along I went, noting several broken insulators and trying very hard not to hit the fence posts when…all of a sudden, I wasn’t making any forward progress. I slowly looked down at my left back wheel and saw it spinning in the mud. I. Was. Stuck. With a frustrated sigh, I recalled a similar instance from last year…this same spot. This same mower. Something I should’ve remembered. Although I remembered it took three of us to get it out last time, I decided I might as well try, and I attempted {unsuccessfully} to push it out. I glanced back towards the barn and saw the girls had returned from their trail ride, so off I went.

“Lindsay…you’re  going to fire me.”

She popped her head out of the tack room. “Oh, I saw. :)”

“Uggg….really?”

“Oh yes. :) We were riding along the apple trees, and I looked down towards the pastures and said ‘Oh, I sure hope Mattie doesn’t get stuck in the same-‘ and then you did. And then we saw you throw back your head and sigh…and then try to push it out. And we all found it rather amusing.”

“Well, I’m glad I brought a smile to someone’s day.”

So she went and commissioned two of the guys and the four of us were able to un-stick the mower and I finished the rest of the fencelines successfully. And that was a grammatically horrible sentence. As was the following one, and the one after. Oh well. :)

Now, the spot where I have now been stuck twice looks innocently like the rest of the pasture on the surface, but underneath is a most frustrating layer of chronic muck. You would think that once would be enough, and I would carefully avoid the ‘quicksand’ from then on…but as you know, I didn’t.

And I think this can be easily applied to other parts of our lives…well, mine at least. There are activities or interests which may seem harmless on the surface, but deeper exposure may reveal a pit from which escape is not easy. Things such as eating, blogging, emailing, ‘Pinteresting’, reading, etc may all be enjoyable and beneficial in moderation…but can easily be taken too far.

Another lesson I’m taking away is the glorious gift of second chances. Lindsay didn’t fire me {hooray!}. And my God won’t ‘fire’ me either when I make mistakes, or fall into a pit. I’ll {hopefully} learn from my mistakes and become a wiser person and stronger, more mature Christian. To quote Mr. Lewis, “'Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.”

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”

 {Psalm 40:2-3}