11012025 Mud Season

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of God our Rock. That matters.

When I lived in New Hampshire, people sometimes used to joke that we didn’t have summer there. My reply was, “Yes, we do. Last year it was on a Wednesday.”

After that brief summer came autumn, then wiiiiiiiinteeeeer. Then mud season. Mud season is hard to explain if you haven’t lived through it. My best attempt is that the ground doesn’t seem firm. When you set your foot down, it’s like the whole surface underneath your foot is squishy. Or shifty. Like the surface is unstable. Like an earthquake. The surface slides around. See, I was right. I can’t really explain it.

I have thought that sometimes life is like that, though. You’re walking, but everywhere you put your foot, it feels like the surface is shifting underneath you, and it’s not quite firm. Of course, I’m talking now about life and faith and feeling uncomfortable and maybe a little uncertain.

But here’s the good thing about mud season (and why I think it provides a good parallel for life). You can walk on the mud. You don’t sink in like quicksand. It’s just the surface that is shifty, but underneath there is solid ground. Walking on that surface, I might have concern that huge clods of mud will build up on my shoes. I might have concern that I could slip or fall. But I don’t have concern that I will sink through the earth. I don’t have concern that the ground will either disappear or swallow me up. I know it’s just the surface layer that is uncomfortably squishy.

That’s how it is with life also – with the faith journey. No matter how squishy and uncomfortable the surface feels, there is solid ground underneath. You might get a little muddy, and you might slip, but you won’t sink through or get swallowed up. There is a rock-solid foundation that cannot disappear. That knowledge is what enables us to keep walking forward. Sure, it might not feel great at the moment, but nothing eternally tragic is going to happen.

God is a rock. Trust in Him is well-placed. “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his” (II Timothy 2:19). “And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer” (Psalm 78:35).

Maybe no one else thinks like me, but I hope this unusual illustration can be an encouragement. Even if every step feels squishy, there is a firm foundation underneath. Trust in that, and keep walking.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA