I was a senior in high school and was a part of our high school football team. I played the halfback position and enjoyed the full contact and of course avoiding it when I could. We were playing a home game against a very good team and I had scored two touchdowns. One of my other duties on the team was punt returner, a very precarious position to play. You want to keep your head up as there are 12 opposition men who tended to be of the large size, wanting to take your head off.
It was late in the game and we had forced them into a punting situation. As I waited for the ball, standing close to our own end zone, I knew they would be coming full steam ahead attempting to get the ball back. As the ball entered my arms I felt a sick feeling in my stomach as the ball went through and was now a live fumble. They recovered the fumble and scored against us and we were just barely able to eke out a win against them.
The local paper always carried reports from the football games. The next day as I read the article my eyes locked and loaded on one phrase the writer had put in the article, "Jones was the goat with a late game fumble that made the game close." Yes, he had written previously about the two touchdowns but you think I could think about those? NO, just the phrase, "Jones was the goat". It was one of my experiences in our first valley.
The Valley of Siddim. The fear of failure.
The story is found in Genesis 14. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were running away from a battle with some oppressor kings. Verse 10 says this:
"Now this valley was full of sticky tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to run away from the battle, they slipped and they fell and they got stuck in the pits…"
The valley of Siddim is the valley of failure: where you slip, fall, and get stuck! You are going to go through this in your life. You’re going to have failures in your life, and you will run from responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. I don’t know what it is, but you slip, you fall, and you get stuck. You know you need to face it, that conflict, that confrontation that you are running from. What’s your dark, slimy tarpit. You may feel like; I’m stuck, I’m addicted, I am imprisoned, I can’t break free from this relationship. I’ve been running, I slipped, I fell, and now I’m stuck. Then we turn our failures into the fear of failure so we don’t even try we just give up! The fear of failure is our worst failure, it takes us out of the game!
The valley of Siddim is embarrassing to you and you wish you could forget it! I will tell you this. It does not matter where you’ve gotten stuck or how you have gotten stuck, or what pit you’re in, Jesus can get you out. Remember how that scripture in Psalms 23 finishes:
“For thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me!”
We’ve all fumbled, we have all been the goat, DON’T GET STUCK!!! The Bible says, "the fear of man is a trap." The fear of failure will only keep you stuck!
Question: What is your Siddim today? Where has fear driven you headlong into a tar pit?
Meditation: In silence and stillness contemplate this question; What game do I need to get back in? What trail do I need to finish?