Morass is a word you don’t hear often. A friend used it in a sentence the other day and I teased her. She’s got a situation at work that she described as a “morass”, which according to google means “a complicated or confusing situation” or an area of “muddy ground”.
I’m a fan of reality tv shows and recently got hooked on “Farmer Wants a Wife”. (Why seemingly sweet girls think dating a guy on television with multiple other women is a good idea, is beyond me; but I do find the girl drama entertaining) On the show last week the girls on one farm were wading through muck in a pasture up to their knees to pour dark brown liquid in a large tub. It looked disgusting on every level until I realized the liquid was sweet molasses. I love molasses! Ginger cookies and homemade gingerbread are Yum!!! and they require molasses.
Lately I’ve been stuck in the muck of life. Grief has been thick, and made it hard to function. Much like trying to walk through thigh high mud, my steps have felt heavy each day. Painting has helped me cope.
So this weekend in the studio, I added another rooster to my portfolio, and named him Mr. Bed Head. My husband, Brent, took the reference photo for me at a local feed store. He’s a therapy rooster. I didn’t even know that was a thing! Polish roosters crack me up with their mop of feathers that wave back and forth. I think God smiled when he created them. They are just so funny. What looks like crazy hair was part of His design, perhaps just to make us smile too no matter what else is going on.
In the midst of the muck of life it can feel like there’s no reason to smile and everything stinks, quite literally like muck in a pasture. In my daily meditation on the calm app today, the narrator used an interesting quote, “no mud, no lotus”. Apparently, the lotus flower needs mud to grow. She likened this to challenges in our life and how they can help us grow. It made me think of my friend and her morass, or my grief…
Fortunately sometimes what is a morass can actually be used for good. God can do miracles, turning things upside down or inside out and bringing good where we can only see bad.
One day in reading 1 Peter chapter 1, I realized that the value I place on hard circumstances and God’s valuation are different. The text says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may result in praise when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Faith in God’s economy is worth more than gold, and comfort is not. If I’m absolutely honest, for me comfort feels more valuable than the faith that hard circumstances can help grow. At least that’s how I act. I was touched this week by the prodigal son’s story and that it was when he was “in deep need” (Luke 15:14) that his life began to change for the better. When we are in deep need, our desperation can be the beginning of our faith growing deeper.
Desperation feels like a morass, but God says it’s sweet like molasses. He can fill our neediness when we’re aware of it. This is not comfortable, and can burn like the fire that refines gold. In the midst of my grief, I’m seeking Him each day, and He is meeting me here. Life still hurts, but in His hands even this can be used to bring about growth.
Friend, if you too are deeply hurting, may it be a catalyst to reach for the One who can truly help heal your spirit. He promises that when we call, He’ll answer. I’m so grateful He’s always listening, caring, and coming after us with compassion. When we head towards Him, just like the prodigal son’s father -He runs to meet us (Luke 15:20). May we both feel the depth of His love today, no matter how much life hurts.
