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I’ll never forget when we were about three or four years old, my cousin and I. She was 12 hours or so older than I and we were both born in the same hospital. That summer we were visiting “Uncle Jack’s”. Uncle Jack was an East Tennessee farmer with some milk cows, tobacco, and a huge garden that even today brings fond memories. He lived along the bank of the Nolichucky river (we all called it the “Chucky river”). David Crockett was born just upstream two or three miles. One side - the side my uncle’s farm was on - had a beautiful mica sandy beach. Whenever we would come back from the beach it took forever to wash off those particles of mica which stuck to our bodies. There were rapids upstream and below our beach was an old one lane rickety bridge which years later collapsed under the weight of some guy who tried to take a 25 ton machine over a 10 ton bridge. I miss that old bridge.

Uncle Jack was a hard worker, and a good man but sometimes he had a mean streak in him. I guess my cousin Linda and I were pestering him a bit too much. He and my dad and her dad were building a fence, and they had dug a line of postholes near the barn. I don’t remember what we said or did - except that we were probably getting in their way too much! But all of a sudden, the first thing I knew was that we were both picked up and placed in the postholes, our arms pinned to the side. At first it seemed silly, our heads sticking up out of the ground, she and I looking at each other. But when we began to try to move and get out of our holes - sheer panic set in. We could not move our arms, we could not extricate ourselves from this predicament, we could do nothing but scream bloody murder. After all the women of the house came running out to see what the commotion was, my dad came over and pulled me out of the hole, and Linda’s dad did the same, and we all had a great laugh. And I will never forget that incident.

But I was just remembering this rather traumatic event in my life today, and it occurs to me that we often are placed into “postholes” which limit our movement, hinder our escape, kill our dreams, and keep us from receiving the fullest that God has to give us. Debt is one of those postholes. The Bible says that “The borrower is the slave of the lender” And when you are in bondage you do not have the freedom to do or go where you want. I can relate to that as most americans can.

People can be limiters in our lives. When they have negative, and complaining  attitudes they tend to drag us down into the postholes. Sin is a huge posthole. What is the thing that limits you? What is the biggest posthole of your life? How do you get out of the hole?

The answer is the same as what happened to my cousin and I: A loving father comes and gently pulls you out of the hole.

Psa 40:2 says “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

So the thing to do when you find yourself in a posthole, unable to move, unable to advance - is to cry out to the father, and let him extend his arms to you and pull you out of the mess you are in. He will set you on a firm place - the ROCK which is Jesus Christ. God Bless you.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am and is filed under Success Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I’ll never forget when we were about three or four years old, my cousin and I. She was 12 hours or so older than I and we were both born in the same hospital. That summer we were visiting “Uncle Jack’s”. Uncle Jack was an East Tennessee farmer with some milk cows, tobacco, and a huge garden that even today brings fond memories. He lived along the bank of the Nolichucky river (we all called it the “Chucky river”). David Crockett was born just upstream two or three miles. One side - the side my uncle’s farm was on - had a beautiful mica sandy beach. Whenever we would come back from the beach it took forever to wash off those particles of mica which stuck to our bodies. There were rapids upstream and below our beach was an old one lane rickety bridge which years later collapsed under the weight of some guy who tried to take a 25 ton machine over a 10 ton bridge. I miss that old bridge.

Uncle Jack was a hard worker, and a good man but sometimes he had a mean streak in him. I guess my cousin Linda and I were pestering him a bit too much. He and my dad and her dad were building a fence, and they had dug a line of postholes near the barn. I don’t remember what we said or did - except that we were probably getting in their way too much! But all of a sudden, the first thing I knew was that we were both picked up and placed in the postholes, our arms pinned to the side. At first it seemed silly, our heads sticking up out of the ground, she and I looking at each other. But when we began to try to move and get out of our holes - sheer panic set in. We could not move our arms, we could not extricate ourselves from this predicament, we could do nothing but scream bloody murder. After all the women of the house came running out to see what the commotion was, my dad came over and pulled me out of the hole, and Linda’s dad did the same, and we all had a great laugh. And I will never forget that incident.

But I was just remembering this rather traumatic event in my life today, and it occurs to me that we often are placed into “postholes” which limit our movement, hinder our escape, kill our dreams, and keep us from receiving the fullest that God has to give us. Debt is one of those postholes. The Bible says that “The borrower is the slave of the lender” And when you are in bondage you do not have the freedom to do or go where you want. I can relate to that as most americans can.

People can be limiters in our lives. When they have negative, and complaining  attitudes they tend to drag us down into the postholes. Sin is a huge posthole. What is the thing that limits you? What is the biggest posthole of your life? How do you get out of the hole?

The answer is the same as what happened to my cousin and I: A loving father comes and gently pulls you out of the hole.

Psa 40:2 says “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

So the thing to do when you find yourself in a posthole, unable to move, unable to advance - is to cry out to the father, and let him extend his arms to you and pull you out of the mess you are in. He will set you on a firm place - the ROCK which is Jesus Christ. God Bless you.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am and is filed under Success Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.