Getting Unstuck

Today I listened to the story shared by Elder David Bednar, an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about a man who took his new 4-wheel drive truck into the mountains.  In Elder Bednar's words,  "He [had] decided he would cut and haul a supply of firewood for their home. It was in the autumn of the year, and snow already had fallen in the mountains where he intended to find wood. As he drove up the mountainside, the snow gradually became deeper and deeper. My friend recognized the slick road conditions presented a risk, but with great confidence in the new truck, he kept going.

Sadly, my friend went too far along the snowy road. As he steered the truck off of the road at the place he had determined to cut wood, he got stuck. All four of the wheels on the new truck spun in the snow. He readily recognized that he did not know what to do to extricate himself from this dangerous situation. He was embarrassed and worried."

As I heard this story, I remembered an experience as a teenager.

I grew up in Rock Springs, Wyoming in the Red Desert. The Red Desert is a high altitude steppe, which because of the low amount of rain and snow has little growing on it besides sagebrush and some dry bunch grasses. In this 9,000+ square miles of desert is the largest living dune system in the United States, the Killpecker Sand Dunes.

The Sand Dunes are just north of Rock Springs. I've visited many times over the years. The memory today involved a trip my youth group took out to play on them one evening. A missionary had just returned from the field and was home for the summer. Because they needed more drivers and he was old enough, he was asked to take his parent's 2-wheel drive Suburban and bring a load of youth out. We had several other 4-wheel drive Suburbans and trucks carrying us instead of cars because the dunes are ever moving and shifting and you just never know if one is going to be drifted across the road or encroaching on the parking lot.

This year the sand was fairly deep where we parked. For whatever reason this young man ended up farther into the sand than the other vehicles. At some point, and it seems like it was fairly early in the evening, he decided that he needed to get his vehicle moved. So he proceeded to try and back it up, but only succeeded in spinning the wheels deeper into the sand. Instead of stopping and looking the situation over or asking for help, he continued to spin his wheels until he was buried up to the axels.

Thinking about these two stories, I pondered on the ways
I  deal with problems. Sometimes I find myself in a difficult situation and instead of stepping back to taking an objective look at my options, I go over the edge pouring more energy  into emotional melt down and worry about how this will ever be solved, essentially spinning my wheels and burying my abilities to recover from the situation ever deeper.

Sometimes the best option is to drop everything, get a shovel and cardboard and jump right into digging.

Sometimes it is to follow the already decided plan step by step, day by day, until eventually things become unstuck.

In Elder Bednar's words again, "My friend decided, 'Well, I will not just sit here.' He climbed out of the vehicle and started cutting wood. He completely filled the back of the truck with the heavy load. And then my friend determined he would try driving out of the snow one more time. As he put the pickup into gear and applied power, he started to inch forward. Slowly the truck moved out of the snow and back onto the road. He finally was free to go home, a happy and humbled man."

When chosing to basically ignore the situation or problem, it can become a concern whether the plan we are following is the right plan, but if the plan happens to be the plan of salvation, we can continue with confidence and gratitude knowing it is a trustworthy plan.

Which brings me to the last way to get unstuck. And probably the most important one. Probably the one that we should use every time in conjunction with either of the other two.

It's is known as --- CALL FOR HELP!

Fortunately for the young man stuck in the sand, one of the other Suburban's had both 4-wheel drive and a rope, and probably a little more experience with getting out of a situation like that.

While Elder Bednar doesn't mention it, I'm reasonably sure the whole time the friend was cutting and loading, he was also praying.

Whether we call in others or only the Lord, we can get help to get us out of the mire we feel we have gotten stuck in the form of a blessing, a helping hand, or just the calm assurance of the Holy Spirit who will come as we quietly wait in stillness for the Lord.

So the next time, I find myself in a sticky situation and starting to bury myself, emotionally spinning my wheels, I hope I'll remember to stop, evaluate, pray, and then CALMLY follow my heart and head and hopefully the Spirit to a happy and productive conclusion.