General News
13 March, 2026
In good faith
IN GOOD FAITH: It’s no secret that we’ve been having a little bit of rain lately. Where I am, in Central Australia, we have had daily rainfall for the best part of the last two weeks.
While some areas have had floods, we have fortunately been able to avoid them. However, the rain has still had its effect.
The road has been impassable for over two weeks which means no deliveries, resulting in our general store resembling “mother Hubbard’s cupboard.”
After the rain stopped and the road had a chance to dry out a little bit, one of my colleagues decided to take his chances and see if he could get to Alice Springs for some shopping.
That was a big mistake. He made it about 180 kilometres before getting hopelessly bogged down to the axles on the side of the road.
We took another car, which is more suited to the conditions, to pick him up and to try and recover his vehicle.
What we found was a very sad sight indeed. He had gone off the side of the road. Both left-hand side wheels were in mud up to the axles and the other two were on solid ground, resulting in the car having about a 20 degree tilt.
We worked on that car for about three hours, trying to recover it from the mud. We tried digging it out, jacking it out, we tried using recovery boards, we tried winching from various directions, but all to no avail.
The mud that it was stuck in was that very sticky clay type of mud which, once it has a grip on your car it holds it down like glue. In the end, we had to leave it there. The only option left was to organise for heavy equipment to come and remove it.
Such a situation reminds me of the words of Psalm 40, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 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.”
The “mud and mire” probably refers to the conditions at the bottom of a water well or cistern. In the ancient Near East, prisoners were often kept captive by being lowered into disused water cisterns until such time as their captors decided what to do with them.
Examples of this are recorded in Genesis 37, where Joseph was taken captive by his brothers, and in Jeremiah 38, where the prophet Jeremiah was taken captive.
To the best of our knowledge, the psalmist, David, was not taken captive but rather is probably using this as a metaphor to describe a difficult situation that he feels trapped in.
To be caught in the “mud and mire” suggests being stuck in a situation from which there seems to be no hope of escaping on our own. Just as with the bogged car.
These are the times when we have no choice but to call out for help, times when we simply cannot manage on our own.
We don’t know what the particular circumstances are that prompted David to write this, but he did lead a life of many challenges.
It could have been as a result of his own personal failings, or when his life was in danger from King Saul, or rebellion within his own family, or any number of other situations. But what we do know was that David exhibited an unwavering faith and trust in the Lord.
He called upon God to help him during his time of trouble and confirms that God does come to the rescue, as he says, lifting him out and setting his feet upon solid ground.
We have a God who is always compassionate and loving towards His creation.
All He asks of us is that we believe and trust in Him. As it says in the book of Proverbs, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”