Squirming through Life

Jane and I listened to a podcast as we were riding in car. It was the account of a young man who has suffered much from his addictions, and from the harm that his behaviors have done to others. He seems to have emerged from this life to begin anew. I hope this is true, and I pray for him. But one phrase caught my attention. He said that, in the midst of the struggle, you are just “squirming through life.” I  wonder how many people feel that way.

The picture that comes to my mind is what you see on the sidewalk after a heavy rain. There are the earthworms, driven, I suppose, from their wormholes by the influx of water, now in an unfriendly environment, squirming on the concrete. As the sun comes out, many of them don’t find their way back again, and they die and dry, to be blown off by the breeze or swept by the broom. I wonder how many people feel that way.

The much talked-about book “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D.Vance chronicles the travels and interviews of this author as he sought out those who had been left behind by change and progress in our society. These communities are opioid friendly, but certainly not friendly to family and education and, - hope. The people he describes and photographs, hanging out in MacDonald’s, hoping for a place to charge a cellphone, pushing their kids around in stray shopping carts - these people, we could say, are squirming through life. I wonder how many people feel that way.

God in His grace does not leave people to squirm through life. Ezekiel 16 mentions the abandoned, new-born baby, squirming in its own (or its mother’s) blood. But He does not wait and watch to see if it survives. God reaches out. He cleans us and clothes us. He provides and protects. He adorns us and gives us a new identity. In fact, as the story goes, He marries us. He enters into covenant relationship with us. He favors us with his love and affection. He graces us.

This vile world is not “a friend to grace.” Some people have learned to ride the wave and work the system. Some of those same people will be bucked off. Others are simply ground down, merely surviving, squirming. Don’t put your hope in this world. Reach out to God in Christ, because He has already reached out to you in love and sacrifice. Let Him lift you up. Accept the life that he offers - not a life defined by squirming, but one defined by “life, and rest, and joy, and peace.”