Want to Help a Friend with A.N.T.S.? Then REACH, THROW, AND GO

Mike Hosey, An Elder

If you’ve lived in the south for any length of time, you know what mire is.  You may not know it by that name, but you do know what it is.  Mire is mud.  It’s not just any mud though.  It is a mud that is like a soupy, slimy clay.  And it can be very difficult to deal with. In fact, one year I had my septic field repaired and mire was a big problem.  The field had originally been placed in a not-so-good spot in my yard.  It was a bad spot to put a septic field because it was mirey, which keeps water from flowing away from it, which in turn clogs the septic field.  Anyway, the contractor broke his backhoe trying to dig out the old septic field (so that he could put a new one back in the same bad place), and it took him multiple days to do what should have probably only been a few hours. By the way, that field failed a couple of years later --- due to placement. The thing about mire is that you can get stuck in it.  And sometimes the more you struggle against it, the more stuck you get. If you get too deep into it, you almost always need help getting out. This is why David uses it as an illustration in Psalm 69:14-15. He knew that if he didn’t get help from God, he’d be stuck for a long time.

When a person gets Automatic Negative Thinking Syndrome (A.N.T.S.) in their head, those A.N.T.S. will influence a person’s brain and lead him or her right into the mire where they will struggle, and where they will almost certainly need help getting out.  When you see a person struggling in that place, you should do your best to reach out to them.  This is, afterall, what God did for you (John 3:16).  You can REACH out to them with physical help and assistance, and by modeling positivity and a true walk of faith (Matthew 5:16, Ephesians 5:1).  But sometimes that doesn’t work. The person doesn’t want to take your hand, and continues to wallow in the mire.  At this point you need to THROW them a line. You do this because you don’t want to risk getting caught in that mire yourself.  Prayer is an especially good idea here.  You keep your hand on the rope, by keeping them in prayer, so that your mind stays focused on them, and so that you fulfill God’s will that we pray for one another, and for the lost (1 Timothy 2:1-4). You remain ready to pull them in if they decide to take your line.

Sometimes, unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to work either, and the person seems too willing to stay in their negativity, and refuses to see the truth of God. It is here that it might be best to GO (Matthew 10:8-14).  This keeps you from the mire, and allows you to focus your energies elsewhere.