Stick in the Mud
Have you ever heard the phrase “stick in the mud?” This generally refers to the person who is stuck in their ways, unwilling to change, without any initiative or desire to progress in life. Maybe this question hits a little too close to home in the sense that you yourself have been called a stick in the mud by a well-meaning friend or loved one. On a hike along the Yellowstone River not too long ago, I ran across the most impressive stick in the mud that I have ever seen. This “stick” was a massive tree trunk that had washed aground along the bank at low water, and then got itself stuck. Based on the appearance of the smooth whitewashed barkless trunk, it is safe to say that this majestic stick had been stuck for quite a long time.
This giant stick in the mud got me thinking. What kind of tree was this? How tall did it stand and what color did it’s leaves turn every autumn? How far had it traveled down river before it got stuck? When it was stretching skyward as a full-grown flourishing tree, did it ever imagine that it would someday be a stick in the mud?
We can ask ourselves the very same questions. How often do we live in the past, stuck to old glories that no longer matter or that no longer serve us, or lingering dreams that are no longer relevant? Worse yet, to wounds that should have long healed but are still festering for our inability to move forward? I dare say that this may apply to most, if not all of us, in some fashion. We find it so hard to grow and change. We are creatures of habit, old dogs without new tricks. What we know and have always known, what we do and have always done, brings a kind of comfort. Even if that comfort is accompanied by the unsettling feeling that things might be different if only we could stretch ourselves a little, maybe be a bit more adventurous. Less fearful of failing and succumbing to worst case scenarios that are unlikely to happen. Yes, the cancer could always come back, and the stock market could always collapse, and your worst nightmare could win the election, and the sky could fall tomorrow before every conspiracy theory had a chance to be proven right. But living a little more and worrying a little less might go a long way. Try something new and even a little scary, and see what happens. Maybe nothing good, but just maybe something great.
While my puppy and I certainly had fun climbing up and down the limbs of the majestic dead tree trunk, one wonders what the former living tree might have wanted for its next chapter. Perhaps to drift all the way out to sea and see the world. Or to become the tall mast of a beautiful sailboat or a beam in the vaulted roof of a restored cathedral. Or to split into logs that could keep a family warm for the winter, or hollow out to provide a home for a thousand forest creatures. Something different I’m sure than a whitewashed stick in the mud, frozen in time, trapped in place. Gratefully, unlike that tree, we have a chance to open our hearts and souls to change and growth. It is not easy, but this is what makes our lives a blessing. Moving toward something new, something better, something closer to what God intended for us to be. Pray on it and then go for it!
