Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

 Have you ever stepped in the deep mud at the edge of a pond, felt your foot sink into the mud and find that you are completely stuck? Twice I have lost good boat shoes to a few feet of freshwater muck. For me, being stuck like that it is an awful feeling, like I’m trapped.

At times I have felt like that is what has happened to my life. Walking in the old life of sin and shame felt like every step, every word, every action, was just putting me deeper and deeper into the muck. One bad step led to a worse one.

Paul says that we “might walk in newness of life.” Yet most of us are very stuck trying to move through life. And all of us, because we are human are stuck in our way of thinking or in some other way. We are buried in the muck.

In Baptism, we are unstuck. In baptism the Holy Spirit frees our feet and gives us the freedom and the permission to walk a new way. The way of the Cross.

God help us to see that we aren’t stuck. Amen.