The other day, I took my kids to one of the local playgrounds and they enjoyed some time on the slides, rock wall and swings. On one piece of equipment, there is a tunnel as you can see in the photo. The tunnel has some holes on each side and is the only way a child can get to the biggest slide, unless he or she is big enough to climb up the rock wall.
My daughter is only 2 and not yet able to ascend the rock wall so she tried the tunnel because she, of course, wanted to go down the big slide. But she was also unable to climb the steepest part of the tunnel. She was stuck about midway for a little while as nothing she tried was successful in getting her higher up the tunnel and the extra efforts she made just tired her out, thus working against her. She realized quickly that she needed some help despite her initially independent inclinations.
I reached my hands through two of the holes in the tunnel, one above her to help pull her up, and one below to support her and prevent her from slipping back down. Colbie tried to take hold of my hand with one of her hands, but it was not enough. She had to let go of the grip she had on one of the tunnel holes to grab hold of mine with both of her little hands, entirely abandoning the tight, yet fruitless, grip she’d had on the tunnel wall. Once she fully released her hold on the tunnel wall, she was holding me tightly enough and not gripping the hole she was currently at, which allowed me to pull (from above) and push (from below) her little self the foot or so needed for her to be able to crawl on out of the top of the tunnel. She was then able to easily get to the big slide, and this was repeated a good 7 or 8 times before she switched her attention to another part of the playground.
I snapped a photo of the tunnel, feeling I should write about my thoughts. I think most everyone can relate to having our sights set on something: a goal, a milestone, an achievement, even a smaller or momentary gratification or satisfaction of some sort. Even when we may clearly see what must be done to get there, we sometimes underestimate or don’t yet know what kinds of difficulties may pop up along the way. There will be unknowns and unpredictable occurrences in our lives – that is for certain. And I think sometimes we can be so focused on what we think we need to do to get where we want to be going that we may miss the actual solution entirely. Or, at a minimum, we are more likely to overlook the opportunity to trust God more deeply, grow in relationship with Him, and rely on Him and His guidance in those times of challenge and difficulty along the way because we are just too set on our own ways of trying to go about it.
As we consider the present state of our lives, the current realities we find ourselves in, it may be helpful to ask ourselves: Are our eyes open to the ways God is reaching out to us, offering us His support and assistance? Or are we blinded by what our sights are set on, fiercely prideful and independent as we strive endlessly through life toward what we think we need or want? And if we have found “success” in some way, are we willing to give the credit where it’s due and remain humble even once we have found favor or achievement of some kind?
I think it can be easy to be too prideful to accept a helping hand, or to think we need to figure something out all by ourselves and make it on our own steam so to speak. That can easily extrapolate into then expecting that everyone else should “make it on their own” and absolving ourselves of any responsibility to be of assistance. We can easily, though inaccurately, associate dependence with weakness (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Or, we may put a premium on ensuring we maintain ownership over the “bragging rights” for our lives. But boasting, even a boastful heart, is not something we should take part in (2 Cor. 10:17). It can make us uncomfortable to consider just how dependent we truly are, in all aspects of our lives, on the Lord. He sustains us every day, and also propels us, stirs us, and encourages us daily through the Holy Spirit.
Once on the other side of the difficulties, we can also become prideful after the fact. As if we got to where we are at with no help from anyone else or as the result of God’s many kindnesses and blessings to us. I love how once Colbie experienced her tunnel setback the first time, she asked me for help much more quickly during her future attempts. She often looked up amid her struggle to climb further, saw my hand reaching in and took hold immediately upon seeing it there waiting for her. Any stubbornness to do it herself dissipated because she had experienced firsthand how much easier it was to just trust me from the get-go. Yet sometimes we don’t act that way when it comes to God. We can experience His help and provision many times over and, still, when some new (or even familiar) situation arises, we seek first to tighten our grip on our present reality, refusing to consider that He may be right there with us, ready to take us to the next part of our journey and growth. We respond to Him with, “No, no, I got this” in our hearts, which is almost laughable when we try to think about that from an outside perspective. Prayer and looking to the Lord to see where He wants to lead us is so often not our first response.
I suppose my purpose in sharing this somewhat meandering reflection is to encourage anyone who may feel like they are stuck in some life situation that they cannot see a way out of, even if they know what good lies ahead if only they can make it out of this tunnel they seem to be trapped in. There are holes in the tunnel where light shines through, even if it may be terrifying to lift your eyes from what you are facing, even when it can be so hard to think there may be something beyond this present and consuming struggle. There are hands ready to help, and I hope you can sense that it is the Lord who has sustained you this far. He is constant, unchanging, our firm foundation and He can be trusted with the future, as well. It can be challenging, I know, regardless whether the thing you have set your sights upon are the things God has for you or if they are actually not the best plans for your life. Any security blanket we think we’ve found in this world is not one which will last. There is only one sure and eternal source of security, and He will never leave, forsake, or abandon us (Deut. 31:8).
It’s natural to, over time, find some sense of security in the stuck even if only because of its growing familiarity and, because of that, miss out on what lies beyond. God’s big slide for you, which often proves to serve as a resource for others, as well. The greatest thing any of us can experience is to grow in closeness and conformity with Christ and, through the tunnels and slides alike, that is something I hope for all of us as we continue this earthly trek.
Psalm 121:1,
HLC
sacred strokes 