Gilligan Finds Jesus!

One day Gilligan ventures off as usual into thejungle. After a few hours the Skipper knowsGilligan's absent-minded behavior, gets a littleworried and goes trotting off looking for him.After a while the Skipper hears Gilligan's squeakyvoice in the distance yelling, "SKIPPER, SKIPPER,SKIPPER HELP!!!!"

The Skipper follows his voiceand finds Gilligan stuck in a quicksand pit withonly his head showing above the surface. As usualGilligan has got himself in a mess that only theSkipper can get him out of. The Skipper looks indisgust, yet with a feeling of no surprise andreluctances pulls Gilligan out from the pit.However, not without being tempted to leave hissorry little skinny self in there. However, hereis what we didn't see.

While Gilligan was yelling for the Skipper torescue him, the boy thrashed around swinging hisarms and reaching for anything that could get himto a more solid foundation. But, the more heyells, and the more he thrashes he sinks fasterand further downward into the pit until he is upto his neck in thick mud. He physically can't movehis body from the shoulders down. So needless tosay, Gilligan is forced to stop moving andconsequently he stops sinking and buys more timein order for the Skipper to come rescue him fromthe quicksand pit.

The moral of the story is this:Each one of us has at one time or another foundourselves in a state of mind like our friendGilligan. We struggle in the quicksands of life'sexperiences We get lost from God, bound by Satan'slies and we cry out for help. "Oh God, please helpme with this situation. We don't hear from God onin our time frame so we think God is not hearingus. So what do we do then? We yell louder, wethrash around more by complaining, getting angrywith others and we grow impatient with God. Wemight even take on the attitude, "I'll figure outa way to get out of this on my own, thank you verymuch."

All the while we keep sinking down, downand down. Then, when everything has surrounded usand we have a chokehold of life around our neckswe find ourselves having a feeling of beingparalyzed, weighted down with life's burdens andfeelings of hopelessness.

But miraculously this is about the time God tendsto show up, so we think. We finally have beenforced to stop trying to do it ourselves; our armsand self-centered attitudes have been beaten downto the point of total emotional exhaustion. Wefeel we just can't do this alone and we decidethat our prideful nature has gotten the best ofus, and our way is really getting us nowhere. Itis only then, that we become still in our heartsand start to listen for that quiet voice of God,who really has been there all along. When God seesthis he reaches out his hand and pulls us out tosafety and strengthens us with peace once again.Hopefully, by our own experiences in life we learnfrom this old boy Gilligan; living for anotherepisode of life taking us that much closer intothe presents of God.

Points to Ponder: Are you growing impatient with God about somethingin your life? Are you not trusting him enough andhave the attitude that you can do it yourself? Doyou hear God's still quiet voice speaking to yourheart, but avoiding it?

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

Greg Ryan is a best selling author of the Changing from the INSIDE OUT series. A powerful five step plan to better your life, get healthier, and have more energy! For FREE mini Course click here! http://www.resolutions.bz