Getting Out of the Rut

Those of you who have been out to my place know that we have a nice long driveway before you get up to the house. Getting the mail is a mid length jaunt down the road...except in the winter. It then becomes a 'five mile' walk (you know-the kind our parents had when they walked to school as a kid, the kind that keeps getting longer and more life threatening as the years go by). With all the snowstorms we've had lately, (and we've had more than our fair share), we have had to get our driveway plowed out several times already. The last few days have been testing my skills as an Indy 500 racer (well, maybe more like a demolition derby driver) just to get out of the driveway. The "Grandpa Car", that's my husband's car so named by my 20 year old daughter because of its endearing looks, has done a fairly decent job of getting us from point A to point B. That is as long as I stay in the ruts. Unfortunately, those ruts aren't very smooth, they aren't straightat all, and they sometimes fill in. So today, I took a running start:

I need to break and preface this with a DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME admonishment. It may not turn out very well.(I hope my husband doesn't read this, he's over in Thailand enjoying 90 degree weather and hopefully will remain oblivious to my attempts at remedying my poor plight stateside in the frozen Northland).

Anyway, I took a running start to get through the first few drifts. "Yea!" "Good one Mom!" "Cool" "Powder everywhere!" "Way Cool!" At this point, I was feeling pretty confident buoyed by my previous success. The extremely long stretch was fast approaching - huge drift ahead. Yikes! We swerved and slid and almost came to a grinding halt. But, chalk another one up to the "Grandpa Car" - it pulled us through, though it wasn't pretty. But, the end was still ahead, so being the good driver I am; I looked down at least a few miles on both sides to be sure there were no other cars in sight for the last harrowing, daring attempt at getting out on the highway. "Hey, Mom, get over to the right, hurry up!" "Turn, Turn, Turn", as we... well, we turned! More like swerved? slid? ...cut a cookie? Well, we did make it - we weren't in the ditch (Oh,this wasn't the ending you thought I'd have?).

You know, getting out of a rut isn't easy - it certainly isn't comfortable, nor is it uneventful! In fact, one could easily get pulled off to the right or to the left and wind up in the ditch. It can be frightening as you plow into new territory and tread on the road least traveled as the poet said (in my case, hard packed 10 inches of snow). But I have to admit when you come out on the other side, you are glad you attempted and very ecstatic that you made it!

Have you tried anything new lately? Made any new resolves for the coming year? How about reading your Bible through not once, but two or three or more times in a year? or setting side a time each day for the Lord only? Have you noticed that getting started in your new endeavor is probably the bumpiest? Sort of like rattling around in a rut isn't it? Plowing new ground isn't easy either and it is certain when you make a commitment to stick with your spiritual plans that you will get off track occasionally too. Hang in there, the rut isn't the straightest or shortest route to success either. It may have been plowed in a time of despair, or depression, or emotional upset in the first place. Lots of times ruts are soggy, mucky messes that slow us down, throw us way off course or stop us in our tracks. I'm reminded of a verse in Psalms about the mire, "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:"(Psalm 69:2). We can get quite wishy-washy while stuck in a rut, can't we? In Psalm 40:2, the psalmist is rejoicing about being brought out of a spiritual rut, "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." Being on an established road is by far the best place to be - you can see it, stay on it and get where you want to be.

Really, we know what to do. It's probably not always the wisest thing to take a running dive into your changes and hope for the best like I did with my driving. You may end up going full force into the ditch! But sometimes some extra oomph is the only way to get out of a rut. It could take extra drive, extra determination, extra initiative and... a lot of extra grace!

Have a blessed day!

Lori