The "squishy ball" effect

In the auto business I have to have a body shop to work on the dents pre-delivered or self inflicted to ready the vehicles for sale.

Around the corner within walking distance and sighing distance is my body shop. The trip always in entails walking one way or the other, dependent on whether I am dropping off or picking up a patient.

It was during Friday's jaunt that I was returning to my office that I encountered the "squishy ball". This is a ball made of foam encased in a fabric that lets water into the foam. They are great for playing in a swimming pool with, not so great for sucking up gutter water.

I kicked the ball in lieu of a rock towards the center of the road, up where the crown is. The ball skimmed out of the water from the force, spraying a rooster tail of dirty water two feet into the air. As the ball neared the top of the road it's momentum slowed and the ball casually rolled back down into the dirty water of the gutter.

I walked over to the ball and surveyed it's condition. It was wallowing in filth again and saturated with cold gutter water. It had lost it's round shape and looked flat and depressed. Even the vibrant colors of the material looked dingy.

I kicked the ball again, this time with more force than before and with a trajectory more in line with the top of the road. The ball went sailing for a second above the ground, but the weight of the contents brought it back to the pavement with a audible thud. It rolled as before with waste water flinging from the the roll inflicted. As the ball began to slow and thin from the form changed in to a more circular mass and less and less water came from it. Just as before, it didn't make it to the top of the road, but began to slowly roll towards the water of the recessed gutter. This time I noticed the the color of the ball without the dirty water was bright and attractive.

I ran to catch up to the ball and keep it from rolling into the gutter but I was to late. It rolled into a half ball deep stream of liquid slime. Disgruntled I kicked the ball again...hard, harder than I had kicked it before. The result was two fold. I got dirty from the splashing of the kick and the tail of the spray, but it made it to the top and center of the paved road. It slowed as it lost it's momentum and contents until it stopped it's forward movement in the dead center of the vacant road.

The next number of kicks were easy. The ball stayed on course and rolled straight down the center of the crown. Each time I kicked the ball I only needed little corrections to keep the ball where I wanted it. It look dry now. No impediments, no extra weight. The ball was brightly colored and had a nice round form as it rolled along.

As I puttered along I came to a corner and didn't navigate it well, the ball with all the intentions of going along as it had, didn't turn just right. It was yards in front of me when I noticed it going off the straight topped crown and slowly lagging to the right. By the time I was able to run to the ball it had drifted to the edge of the gutter. This was a different gutter, dirty water all the same, but this time there was mud. As the ball stopped it just touched the water on it's very edge. It wasn't submerged or even dipped, it just touched it.

With the horror of a parent watching a child fall into a rushing creek I ran to save it. I was too late, for as I ran I could see the ball where it touch the water seem to absorb water and wick it into it's foam body. With a little internal jog, the ball rolled toward the on coming weight of the intake...and plop, it was deep again into the water and covered with mud.

This time I picked the ball up and threw it with force against the pavement knocking the mud and water off and out of it. It was worse for the wear. I kicked it to the center of the crown and continued to my office.

While this exercise played out, my mind thought how analogous this event was to life: When we are in the filth of life, near saturated with the weight of sin that weighs us down, it takes a lot of force to get us out of the mire. We have to have our sights set for the highest ground. If we don't push in the right direction with enough force we will naturally roll back to the gutter.

Even when we have purged almost all of the filth out of us, if we don't have the momentum and proper aim, gravity of our situation will pull us down.

Many times we may have to start over and over again, experiencing the cold, saturating filth and painful expulsions to free ourselves from the wallow. It is only once we reach the top of our goal, the middle of the road, the crown of safety do we thin ourselves of all our extra baggage. Then we regain our creators shape, bright color and full potential.

But even then, if we are inattentive in direction, or we push past our present protection, we can drift towards the mire that once held us bloated. Even in our clean and lightened state, if we so much as touch that which held us down before, we will absorb it faster then we were originally tainted. It is then that trauma may be the only way that God has to pick us up and knock the sickness out of us.

The lesson of this parable is that once we extract ourselves from the mire of life and reach the high ground, we need to carefully chart a course and measure our propulsion to keep us on the straight and narrow path, always in control with an eye on the goal.