It’s Good To Be In A Rut!

by Robert Mohns

What’s the difference between a rut and a ditch? About six feet.

This was the advice given to young drivers such as myself who lived in the Red River gumbo of southern Manitoba. The temptation for novice drivers when driving the back roads was to try to keep out of muddy ruts. On several occasions, that tragic mistake resulted in the death of a driver after slipping off the road at high speeds and into the ditch.

We often view life in a rut as bad thing, a boring thing. That’s the whisper of Satan, who would have us perish in the ditch of unbelief, sin, and eternal death. He is constantly tempting us to seek a better way to live our life.

Advent instructs us that the difference between a rut and ditch is six feet. It warns us that trying to find our own path through this world leads to death. Advent bids us keep in the ancient rut, which stretches as far back as the dirt of earth has existed. This is the dirt that the Lord created and by it separated the waters. It is the same dirt God populated with vegetation and every living creature. It is the same dirt that the Lord used to form our first parents and into which He breathed His Spirit. It is the same dirt upon which He spoke His benediction, saying “It is very good.” And indeed, the earth and everything God created was perfect and beautiful beyond compare.

May God open all our senses to the wonderment that accompanies the sights and sounds, scents and emotions, that this season of comings offers, and enliven our praise and worship to the glory of His Holy Name.

However, our first parents did not stay in the rut of that blessed estate. Those novices were sucked into the ditch by the lie of the serpent. In the midst of life, death entered the world, and since then all humanity has buried their loved ones six feet under the dirt in a grave—for the wages of sin is death.

Ever since then fear has overtaken humanity. The seas churn and mountains rumbles and spew. Gentle breezes turn to hurricanes and tornadoes. Beautiful cloud formations turn into blizzards, and gentle, life-giving rains turn into torrents and flooding. Shouts of joy and songs of praise, and the comforting presence of friends and family, transmit deadly pandemics. In our day, we know profoundly that sense of fear of life in the deep, dark ditch of sin, death, chaos, evil, brokenness, and hopelessness.

Into this world of deep, deadly ditches comes the Son of God, born of woman. Fully God, fully human. Conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the flesh of His mother. God enfleshed in the same dirt He created and of the same dirt common to all humanity. He came from the glories of heaven to redeem those born under the curse of the law. In the shed blood of the Son of Man that flowed freely from Calvary’s cross down upon the dirt, God has reconciled the whole world to Himself.

Advent warns us that the distance between a rut and ditch is six feet. But far greater is Advent’s message of comfort and hope. To live in the rut is to live in the benediction of God. It is to live a live that is truly “very good.” This ancient rut runs deep with hope and joy, peace and comfort, which have sustained the saints of all generations. It is good to live in the rut. In it is God’s protection and deliverance. It is good to live in this rut because the direction of this rut leads home. It is good to live in the rut, in the ancient, holy Christian faith, delivered to us by the prophets and apostles. I pray that God would, by the working of His Spirit, keep us in this rut.

May God open all our senses to the wonderment that accompanies the sights and sounds, scents and emotions, that this season of comings offers, and enliven our praise and worship to the glory of His Holy Name.

———————

Rev. Robert Mohns is Regional Pastor for Lutheran Church–Canada’s West Region.

Print this article