One day Gilligan ventures off as usual into the jungle. After a few hours the Skipper knows Gilligan's absent-minded behavior, gets a little worried and goes trotting off looking for him. After a while the Skipper hears Gilligan's squeaky voice in the distance yelling, "SKIPPER, SKIPPER, SKIPPER HELP!!!!"

The Skipper follows his voice and finds Gilligan stuck in a quicksand pit with only his head showing above the surface. As usual Gilligan has got himself in a mess that only the Skipper can get him out of. The Skipper looks in disgust, yet with a feeling of no surprise and reluctances pulls Gilligan out from the pit. However, not without being tempted to leave his sorry little skinny self in there. However, here is what we didn't see.

While Gilligan was yelling for the Skipper to rescue him, the boy thrashed around swinging his arms and reaching for anything that could get him to a more solid foundation. But, the more he yells, and the more he thrashes he sinks faster and further downward into the pit until he is up to his neck in thick mud. He physically can't move his body from the shoulders down. So needless to say, Gilligan is forced to stop moving and consequently he stops sinking and buys more time in order for the Skipper to come rescue him from the quicksand pit.

The moral of the story is this: Each one of us has at one time or another found ourselves in a state of mind like our friend Gilligan. We struggle in the quicksands of life's experiences We get lost from God, bound by Satan's lies and we cry out for help. "Oh God, please help me with this situation. We don't hear from God on in our time frame so we think God is not hearing us. So what do we do then? We yell louder, we thrash around more by complaining, getting angry with others and we grow impatient with God. We might even take on the attitude, "I'll figure out a way to get out of this on my own, thank you very much."

All the while we keep sinking down, down and down. Then, when everything has surrounded us and we have a chokehold of life around our necks we find ourselves having a feeling of being paralyzed, weighted down with life's burdens and feelings of hopelessness.

But miraculously this is about the time God tends to show up, so we think. We finally have been forced to stop trying to do it ourselves; our arms and self-centered attitudes have been beaten down to the point of total emotional exhaustion. We feel we just can't do this alone and we decide that our prideful nature has gotten the best of us, and our way is really getting us nowhere. It is only then, that we become still in our hearts and start to listen for that quiet voice of God, who really has been there all along. When God sees this he reaches out his hand and pulls us out to safety and strengthens us with peace once again. Hopefully, by our own experiences in life we learn from this old boy Gilligan; living for another episode of life taking us that much closer into the presents of God.

Points to Ponder: Are you growing impatient with God about something in your life? Are you not trusting him enough and have the attitude that you can do it yourself? Do you hear God's still quiet voice speaking to your heart, but avoiding it?

The Challenge: This week take your worries, write them down on paper. (Be specific) crumple the paper in your hands and throw it in the trashcan. This will be a symbol of you trusting God to pull you out of your quicksand pit. The key is to leave them in the trash. If you don't God can't help you according to his word. We live by faith not by sight!