“Mama, come over here,” my oldest beckoned from the playground.

“I’m in the middle of something, what do you need?” I yelled across the yard.

“You’ve gotta’ come over here and touch this mud. It feels so good.”

The Real Mud

“Mud? Seriously. I have touched mud my whole life, Carter. I think I’m caught up, but you enjoy it for me, okay?”

“But, Mama, you haven’t touched THIS mud before. It’s different,” he persuasively continued.

Needless to say, I managed to avoid the mud, but I stood on the porch a bit bewildered. Why, after a hot summer, would they choose one of the coolest afternoons we’d had in months to play in wet, yucky mud?

The Spiritual Mud

My boys playing in the mud made me think about the things I choose to wallow in. Something about mud draws us to get down in it and roll around, even when we know it’s not what’s best. My boys knew I wasn’t going to let them in the house without first getting hosed off in the yard with the cold water, yet, they still chose the mud. We know the consequences of getting back into our own muddy situations and attitudes, yet we still choose to wallow.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

~Psalm 40:2 ESV

Maybe we do it because it’s comfortable. Convenient. Familiar. Normal. And maybe it might even be fun. But wallowing in the mud isn’t going to end so well. The hose-down in the backyard produced screams and yells. Mud dripped into their eyes, and we had to remove shoes and clothes and put them on the porch.

Our mud might look a little different, but the hose-down is the same. The process often results in consequences like self-doubt, insecurity, bitterness, unforgiveness, lack of self-control, regret, and guilt.

Consider the possible consequences of spiritual mud, then choose not to get hosed down by the cold water of God’s consequences anymore.

Father, keep our eyes focused on You so we don’t find ourselves playing in the mud. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Genre: Non-fiction

Copyright 2024: Playing in the Mud: Christy Bass Adams: All Rights Reserved