{"id":4770,"date":"2025-07-24T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2025-07-24T09:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:00:19","slug":"out-of-the-muck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/out-of-the-muck\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of the Muck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

According to a 2010 article in Slate<\/em> magazine, almost 3% of the films produced in the 1960s included a scene in which a character got trapped in quicksand.

I\u2019m pretty sure I saw every one of those movies. The Saturday matinees at our neighborhood theater \u2013 whether Westerns, thrillers, monster flicks, or pirate sagas \u2013 almost always showed someone shrieking in terror as he or she disappeared into an unforgiving, sludgy pool.\u00a0

It was the perfect way to get rid of one of the \u201cextras.\u201d

If we do a quick check of the facts about quicksand, however, it becomes clear that most of us have no reason to fear such a cinematic demise.

Quicksand is an unstable mixture of sand, mud, or clay, mingled with water and air, which collapses under any weight or stress (such as the sudden intrusion of a hiking boot). These soupy mixtures (which may, at first glance, appear entirely solid) are found the world over \u2013 especially near swamps, tidal flats, and riverbanks.

Hollywood would have us believe that quicksand is capable of engulfing an entire convoy of Teslas. But the good news is that such swampy stretches are almost always just a few inches or a few feet deep.

That makes them annoying but not generally life-threatening.

The key is to remember Douglas Adams\u2019 timeless counsel in The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em>: \u201cDon\u2019t panic.\u201d

Since your body is less dense than a gloppy mixture of mud or sand, you can actually float atop quicksand \u2013 but only if you stop thrashing. Pushing hard to try to get free actually drives other body parts deeper into the muck.

Furthermore, if you somehow manage to sink all the way up to your chest, breathing might become a challenge.

So listen to the experts: Slow down. Relax. Lie flat on your back, with your arms extended at your sides. Gently move toward firmer ground until you can roll yourself to safety. Yes, that\u2019s just as incredibly messy as it sounds, and you may end up leaving your backpack and shoes behind.

But at least you\u2019ll live to see another Saturday matinee.

There\u2019s an oft-repeated saying in 12-step communities like Alcoholics Anonymous: \u201cIf you want to get out of it, you have to get into it.\u201d

Instead of denying that you\u2019re actually stuck in a real mess, or praying that God will magically transport you to the fabled Land of No Problems (without any effort on your part), the path to healing almost always involves facing reality. That usually means standing up to what scares you more than anything else. \u00a0

Bible teachers are fond of pointing out that \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u201d is the #1 command on the pages of Scripture.

What they don\u2019t always mention is what comes next.

When God tells both Old and New Testament heroes not to be afraid, he usually, in the very next breath, instructs them to do the very thing that fills them with terror. \u00a0

In his book Steps<\/em>, pastor John Ortberg points out that God says, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Moses \u2013 go and confront Pharaoh.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Gideon \u2013 leave the threshing floor and take on the Midianites.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Elijah \u2013 go back and face Jezebel, who says she wants to kill you.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Joseph \u2013 go ahead and take Mary as your wife.\u201d \u201cIn all those cases, when people are afraid, \u2018Do not be afraid\u2019 means \u2018Do exactly what you\u2019re afraid of.\u2019\u201d

It\u2019s just like quicksand: If you want to get out of it, you have to get into it<\/em>.

Ortberg continues, \u201cThe promise in each case is not<\/em> that they will be spared the discomfort of fear. Quite the opposite. It\u2019s that precisely in the midst of that discomfort they will discover that God is with them.\u201d \u00a0

God is with you in whatever mess you\u2019re facing today.

God is with you in the misery of a family split.
God is with you in the muck of addiction.
God is with you in the quagmire of depression.
God is with you in the deep swamp of worry.
God is with you in the seeming hopelessness of the daily news.

Don\u2019t be afraid.

The God-who-is-with-you will help you confront reality and face what seems impossibly scary.

And, by God\u2019s grace, you will soon enough find yourself once again on solid ground.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here According to a 2010 article in Slate magazine, almost 3% of the films produced in the 1960s included a scene in which a character got trapped in quicksand. I\u2019m pretty sure I saw every one of those movies. The Saturday matinees at our neighborhood theater \u2013 whether Westerns, thrillers, monster flicks,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[205,963],"class_list":["post-4770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fear","tag-twelve-steps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4772,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions\/4772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}