One Serf Camp activity was the Bog Walk. The Lake Beauty acreage is fairly substantial, and a portion of the property is a swamp/bog. For this activity, Serf campers dressed in t-shirts, pants, and shoes (preferably old and potentially disposable), secured themselves to each other and a leader with a rope around the waist, and traversed the bog.
It sounds like a fairly easy activity. However, the bog is deceptive. What may look like a solid piece of turf may actually be a floating chunk of grass. Take a firm step on this grass, and a camper may easily find him/herself up to his/her neck in murky, stinky swamp water. . .hence the reason for the rope. Your teammates keep you from sinking to the bottom and pull you out of the suction cup of mud.
While I personally have never completed the bog walk, I have seen the results. A reward for completing the bog walk is a jump in the lake, and I have seen the bog walkers emerge from the woods. Most look as though they have been treading water in septic tank; they are mud, head-to-toe, with grass, lily pads, and weeds as a bonus decoration.
In addition, I have also smelled the results. For whatever reason, my son decided to take his clothing home with him. . .after they had been through the bog, rinsed in lake water, and stuffed into a garage bag for two weeks. There are no words to describe that kind of foul.
Even though my kids thought it was great, I am fairly certain that the bog walk does not need to be added to my Bucket List. I get panicky when I fall off a kneeboard or tube and am stuck in the middle of a lake too long by myself. I immediately worry about the weeds and fish that might be underneath my feet. Therefore, I can't imagine sinking up to my neck and being immersed in or immobilized by stinky muck. The thought of what might be in the muck with me would make me hyper-ventilate.
The bog walk came to mind when I read the term, "spiritual muddle," this morning. "Spiritual muddle" is getting bogged down in the muddy waters of our own creation we don't immediately obey God's directives.
God has given humans wonderful abilities that surpass His other creation. One is the ability to think intelligently - to apply logic and reasoning to problem-solve effectively. While it may drive us nuts at time, the ability to think and reason is very satisfying.
The problem is that we often take this ability too far and start to rely on reason versus obedience and faith. The ability is a gift to be used as we navigate the physical life, but it is not meant to supersede faith-based obedience.
Nothing illustrates the situation better than Peter's midnight stroll on a stormy lake in Matthew 14:
27"Take courage. it is I. Don't be afraid."
28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
29 "Come," he said.
Then,Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water to jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
31 Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
Even though it wasn't a nasty bog that he needed to cross, Peter needed a healthier dose of confidence than that of the Serf campers to walk the white caps on the Sea of Galilee. For one, it was night time. Secondly, the water was roiling and turbulent, and thirdly, he was going solo - there was no rope around his waist for his pals to use to yank him out. All of his concentration, faith and focus was on one source.
The problem occurred when he allowed himself to become distracted. In the blink of an eye, Peter went from surfing to bog walking. Honestly, I can't blame the guy. I think it's safe to say that he did better than most of us; he at least got out of the boat!
"Spiritual muddle" occurs when we find ourselves like Peter, up to our necks, all because we have allowed logic and reason to muddy what, truly, is so clear. WE make the water muddier and sink down deeper by allowing distractions and complexities to cloud our thinking. The more we analyze the issue, the more complicated and confusing it gets.
The bottom line is that we are acting like willful and stubborn children. We just don't want to obey, so we tell ourselves that we need time to "think things through." At first blush, it sounds like a very responsible and mature action. In the spiritual realm, it is still just plain, old disobedience. If anything, our first impulse (other than immediate obedience, of course) should be to get down on our knees and ask for clarity, not rely on ourselves for the answer.
The point is that "the tiniest thing we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is quite sufficient to account for spiritual muddle. When the natural power of vision is devoted to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the power of perceiving God's Will and the whole life is kept in simplicity" (Oswald Chambers).
If we simply obey right away, the Bog Walk is a cake walk.
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