Is your life the Pits?

I’m sure you have heard the expression “It’s the pits”, indicating that something was just terrible! When I was about 12 I remember getting a letter from a friend and it started “Dear Harolene, Life is like a bowl of cherries, full of pits!” I guess that meant that a lot of things were going on that were just too hard to chew!

There was a man who used to call the house every day and whoever answered the phone was stuck for the next hour listening to him talk about the people who were trying to “put him in the pit”!

The word “pit” is used in scripture 177 times and David makes quite a few references to it in the Psalms. One reference is in Psalm 35:7 For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, which they have dug without cause for my life. That was the one he referred to more, we would pray for him and promise him that we would continue to pray that “they” would not be able to put him in the pit. It was very sad that he was always so afraid of that happening. When he died I stood by his coffin, looked at him and just wondered why that thought had plagued him so much in life. I hadn’t thought of that, or Mr. Adams, in years until today when I was talking with my sister telling her all the woes I had heard from different people. I finally stopped and laughed as I told her “I feel like I am going down into Mr. Adam’s pit about now, you want to pull me out?”

That’s when I remembered the story of the old Mule. The story goes that a farmer had an old mule that fell in a pit. He couldn’t get him out so he decided to just pour dirt in on him, “after all the mule is old”, he thought,” by the time I get all the dirt in he’ll be dead.” He began to shovel dirt in on top of him, but the mule kept shaking the dirt off his back and taking a step up, constantly moving his feet, the more dirt the farmer poured on top of him, the higher he lifted his feet, and the higher he moved up on the dirt. After a little while the mule pranced right on out of that pit!

What’s the lesson here? Instead of feeling overwhelmed, we should keep on keeping on, moving our spiritual feet and remember that when people are dumping their trash on you, instead of letting it affect you shake it off and take a step up! Let all they dump on you pile up and help you just climb out.

A minister once told me that I had let my ears become garbage cans and that I needed to say the “dump” was closed! Yeah, easy for you to say, right? What about you? How do you cope with things when you get so burdened down? 1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Luke 21:34-36 “But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”

Bottom line, if you find yourself falling into a pit, or being tossed into one by enemies or un-caring friends, keep shaking off the discouragement and sadness, moving your feet and taking a step up, then as the above scripture says, pray constantly while you prance on out!