Stuck in the Mud

I have currently been reading a daily devotional book called "Walking with the Celtic Saints". The other day, one of the devotionals was about St. Patrick. History tells that St. Patrick as a youth was captured from his father's estate in Britain and taken to Ireland to be a shepherd-slave. Being a captive in a foreign land, he was lonely therefore he grew close to God. He did make his way back to Britain but returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary years later.

The devotional above recounts the story of St. Patrick during his mission days in Ireland walking through an Irish field. During his walk he noticed a shepherd-slave repairing part of a stone wall that had fallen into the mud where a section of it had collapsed. This reminded St. Patrick of his days of being enslaved himself and doing that same work and the loneliness that came with it. He went to where the slave was working and bent down and picked up a heavy stone from the mud and put into place. The slave looked confused wondering who this stranger was helping him do a slave's job.

Saint Patrick introduced himself and started to recite Psalm 40 as they both continued working. "Patiently I waited from the Lord; he bent down to me and listened to my cry. He raised me out of the miry pit, out of the mud and clay; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm footing. - Psalm 40". St. Patrick then told the slave about a God who was always there in all of life's ups and downs. He told the slave. "I was like one of these stones, fallen into the mud". Then St. Patrick picked up the final stone and set it in place and told the slave, "There are no lose stones with God. Each of us has a place. And it isn't in the mud."

The devotional goes on to say that we also face times of loneliness, sadness, depression, and anxiety. In desperation, we call on the Lord for help. We discover, perhaps to our amazement, that he is very near to us. We realize that he has never left us, even in times when we have forgotten all about him and believed there was no one there to help us. Our experiences bind us together in common humanity.

The Celtic monks were so passionate about the book of Psalms they memorized after chapter of it. Memorizing and applying God's written word brought them closer to God, not in an abstract, theological sense, but where it mattered most: in our daily lives.

St. Patrick not only experienced the loneliness of being a stone stuck in the mud; he also experienced the strong sheltering of God and saw God as a strong shield who was always there for him whenever he faced fear, sadness and anxiety. God's word was a constant reminder of this.

Sometimes our life circumstances seem to be so unfair or unfortunate that we forget that God does in fact have a place for each of us. Not only a place, but a path for us to take. When we are "stuck in the mud" we must remember that He will pull us out and help us get back on that path only if we accept His help. And He wants to help us. We will all fall into the mud at some point but the most important thing to remember is that we don't have to be stuck in the mud.