All Tied Up

Sometimes in life, we find ourselves tied up in mess.

Perhaps it’s a big mess.

And when we end up in aforementioned life mess, rarely is it “on purpose.”

Actually it reminds me of one of my favorite childhood responses when questioned about why I ate dog food/made my sister stick her tongue to a frozen iron pole/blended up a spatula in a batch of zucchini brownies…

“Um, it was an accident.”

The actually truth was my curiosity is the true culprit (that coupled with my lack of judgement and stubbornness to just “see what would happen.”)

My little brother followed closely in the footsteps of his eldest sisters. Although him and I are 12 years apart, we are very similar in personality and manners of thinking. (Please feel free to take a moment and pray for my sweet mother for raising three mischievous country children.)

A few years ago, when he was probably 9 years old or so, my little bro came into the house one afternoon and casually grabbed his rope/lasso. My intuitive Mama was immediately suspicious since he was supposed to be doing chores and feeding the animals– not doing anything involving a rope and lasso. She inquired of his plans… His response? He wanted to practice roping, using our yearling Brahma bull Rowdie as a target.

Mom vetoed that one in a hurry.

However, my brother being my little brother… had other plans.

Within minutes, Mom heard the screen door slam to the back porch. Dal bolts in the house, screaming like a banshee.  (Panicking was an understatement.) My dear, strong-nerved mother got up and began to check him over for missing appendages to deduce what brought on this dramatic scene.

Finally, between the gasping, panicked stutters and tears, Dal admitted that he um, kind of disobeyed (on accident, of course) and was practicing his roping skills… aimed at our little bull. Unfortunately for him, his skills were sharper than he anticipated.

He accidentally roped the bull and it took off across the pasture, lasso around its neck and all. Dal’s response? “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I mean, I didn’t think I could actually DO it!”

This is the kind of stuff we would “accidentally” get ourselves involved in as children of the Lacey family… (Sidenote: This isn’t Rowdie. He was already WAY bigger at the point of our history when the roping incident occurred. This is Cinnamon, a next generation Brahma calf.)

We all laugh about it now. (Well, all of us probably minus Dal– sorry buddy– I owe you some bottled root beer and Pringles next time I come home for telling this story on you.)

But as much as we chuckle about little bro getting all tied up in that mess… I can’t help but think how we as adults and followers of Christ still do the same thing.

Think about it. We have this wild idea and decide we want to “help” God out for one reason or another. (Perhaps we don’t like the path He has given us, or He isn’t moving “fast” enough.) So we inquire, “Hey Lord, would you mind if I…”

He says no. And what do we do? We pursue our own plans, just to see what happens.

More often than not, we find ourselves accidentally tied up in a mess… One that the Lord has to bail us out of.

“Sorry God… um, it was an accident. I didn’t think I could actually do it!” 

Fortunately, Our God is a forgiving God. Every time I come to Him after I my curiosity/impatience/stubbornness has gotten me into a mess, I can just see Our Father rolling His eyes (lovingly) and letting out an exasperated sigh (lovingly) followed by, “Ok, come on, child– let’s fix this.”

In our ability to “help” or “experiment,” we ultimately make a bigger mess of things. Then we find ourselves all tied up– whether it involves a lasso and rope or just our stubborn hearts.

It boils down to trust. Do we trust God enough with our lives to walk with Him, even if it sometimes seems a little slower than our desired pace or a little rockier than what we would choose?

We all have a choice. We can be tied up with ourselves, our thoughts, our plans…

Or we can be tied closely to Christ.

Staying tied to Him,
SGK

“We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.” ~Colossians 1:4-5 (MSG)