Knots

The waters were choppy but we saw our guys on the neighboring golf course across the cove and wanted to get an up close and personal view and say our hellos from the water. So Jennifer and I got the kids, baby Molly, Catherine and William and headed that way. It was a slow day on the course so we were not interrupting others, but we did manage to get some big waves from the dads, Mel and Jon. And off they went to the next hole and we went out way in the boat. The kids wanted to tube a little while we were out and they did but the waters were too choppy for Catherine so she wanted back in the boat, William, on the other hand was ready to ride the waves. So we were off, or so we thought. We began slowly and then all of the sudden the boat jolted and stopped immediately. The rope had gotten caught in the propeller and we were completely stuck, fortunately not too far from home.

A fisherman, in a little fishing boat passed by just moments later and we flagged him down and asked him for a tow to nearby cove. Blessed were we that God had sent him so quickly. He towed us in to the closest bank for we knew his boat was struggling in power to be doing the hauling, and he untied, and we thanked him graciously, giving him our one left over rice krispy treat. Now we had to figure out how to pull the boat on down to the stall. William and I were on the bank, Jennifer and the girls stayed on the boat. It was a joint effort of rope throwing and catching and keeping the boat from going in the rocks. William, I must say was having the time of his life, for he was needed to get through a gated area and open a gate, and he too was responsible for catching the rope at different intervals when we had to negotiate our route.

When we finally got the boat to the stall and raised it we saw the rope tangled in knots too great to even begin to imagine that we could untie. But we persevered. Jennifer and I see this kind of stuff as a great challenge. We have a small rubber boat at the house, and we launched it so that we could get under the boat and to the prop. I was the first one in the little boat, and tried to alleviate the tangle but to no avail and then Jennifer and I traded places. Still I do not know how she managed to release the tension but she did and when we cut through the line, with a knife I had gone up and gotten from the house, that connected the tube on top, that gave her even more leverage. It took a while, but she did it until almost the very end. She said she had done all she could for now, but the last part was a true tug a war and Jennifer did not want to be responsible for breaking something. I knew I was already going to be touted for careless boat management, for the guys I knew had seen us being towed, might as well go for it. So I got back in the little boat to conquer the last entrenched rope remnant. We did get it out, but we needed help from everybody, even Catherine, for she was the babysitter in the boat playpen, distributing goldfish as needed for peaceful countenance.

Knots, we all get caught up in them. And sometimes they are so tangled, we don't have the strength to pull them apart or the know how to find a beginning or realize an end. The rope had been severed by the pressure on the entanglement on the prop and that was one way that Jennifer was able to begin her unraveling process.

Sometimes we too have to be broken so that God can help us to find a way out or through a difficult situation. When tough times come we can be overcome by the enormity of the situation or we can seek help with an attitude that God can help us work it out, whatever it is or how tightly twisted it may be. We, as Christians, have out faith tested through our circumstances. And when tough times come our way, we have to ask some tough questions. Do we sincerely have the confidence and hope in God and his promises? Are we asking him to help generate in us the courage to forge ahead or do we look at our circumstances in hopeless abandonment? It is hard when you are in a situation so tangled that you do not know where or how to begin to set it free.

That rope was crazy knotted. And sometimes so are we! In our emotions, in our feelings, in the complexity of what is before us, but God knows the beginnings and the ends. He knows where to start and how to unwind that which has wound itself so tightly around us. And though the efforts are tedious, ever untangling move makes way for His success. Our success begins with and in a growing, and trusting relationship with Christ. Even in the tightest tangles, God remains patient and methodical in his process to transform us and help us to see and depend on his ways and his ultimate outcome.

The rope was severed in a couple of places, one by natural consequence the other by an intentional cut. But the prop was soon freed of the incumbency. When we allow God the rights to our tangles, he too sets us free, his way. For he, in his timing, loosens the grip that the enemy so carefully ploys. God, as he begins to set us free allows his hope to give courage to our faithful trust in Him, and the tangles of fear, discontent and discouragement begin to be set free.

It is in the quiet places that we see God unraveling the holds that have squeezed us so hard that we are stuck in place. The more opportunity that we consciously give to God to work within us, the more able we are to confidently take on this day that he has given us in joy and in his freedom.

Psalm 119:60-62 I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law.

Dear Lord, we all get squeezed by entanglements. But too often I know those entanglements are a part of my own holdings.
Help me to be free of them and depend on you in faithfulness to guide my course and give me wisdom along my way. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . For His Glory will shine through!

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