Knots. Who knew there were so many? One source says there are billions of knots documented since the beginning of time. According to The Knot’s Manual (yes, that’s really a thing), knots date back at least 15-17,000 years. Ancient humans used knots before axes and wheels. They also used knots to create fishing nets and to tie things. Some historians think gorillas used knots long before we did.
A knot is defined as the placing of rope parts within themselves to bind objects together. You create a knot by turning the rope on itself to create a loop. There are three basic kinds of knots:
Overhand Knot: a knot turned in on itself to create a loop.
Hitch: a knot used to attach a rope to another object, like a pole.
Bend: a knot used to fasten a rope to another rope.
But what I didn’t see mentioned were the knots that we create in our lives. The tangled messes that are the result of turning in on ourselves rather than reaching out to the Father. I can’t count the number of times I chose to take matters into my own hands rather than trust God. When I took detour after detour in search of something “more” or “different” that would solve my problems or bring contentment. Only to find that I’d turned in on myself so often that the result was a life knotted and twisted into unhappiness and confusion.
Or those times when I hitched myself to situations that didn’t honor God, but promised satisfaction, riches, opportunities, etc. When I chose to attach myself to a worldly endeavor because it brought immediate gratification or short-term happiness. Those choices further twisting a path that had been beautifully crafted by my Father.
Times when I chose to bend to the peer pressure of this temporary world because it was easier than taking a stand or making a sacrifice. When the right now suffocated the ever after. When I fastened myself to a rope that only promised to bind me to the enemy.
Trust me. There have been times when I was certain that the tangled cords I had woven could never be unraveled. That I had made such a mess of things that I was beyond saving. That the decisions I’d made and the control I coveted had set me on a path so far from God, that I’d never find my way back home. No matter how hard I tried, I could not untie the knots and free myself.
Enter God. The only one capable of unraveling the knots I created.
There is a story about Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot. As the story goes, in 333 B.C. the Macedonian conqueror marched his army into the Phrygian capital of Gordium in modern day Turkey. Upon arriving in the city, he encountered an ancient wagon, its yoke tied with what one Roman historian later described as “several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened.” Phrygian tradition held that the wagon had once belonged to Gordius, the father of the celebrated King Midas. An oracle had declared that any man who could unravel its elaborate knots was destined to become ruler of all of Asia. Many had tried to untangle the knot with no success.
According to the ancient chronicler Arrian, Alexander was instantly “seized with an ardent desire” to untie the Gordian knot. After wrestling with it for a time and finding no success, he stepped back from the mass of gnarled ropes and proclaimed, “It makes no difference how they are loosed.” He then drew his sword and sliced the knot in half with a single stroke.
That’s my God. But rather than a sword, He uses His love and grace to sever my knots. With compassion He loosens the cords that bind me to this world and my selfish decisions. He smooths out the fray and lays straight the path. And as if that isn’t enough – my freedom from bondage – He gives me the Sword of the Spirit that I might free myself though the Word of God. When I start down a path, crossing over myself, turning in on myself, I need only to look to His Word. To call upon Holy Spirit. To trust in the One who wrote my story before I was breathed into existence.
The only knot I will ever need, is the one that connects me to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The only one I need to turn to is my Father in Heaven. I need only to be hitched to the loving grace of God and bend only to the one who knit me together.
God will use the knots I’ve created and the detours I followed to make me the woman He wants me to be. And while I have made the journey more difficult, it is still my journey. It is one that has taught me to let go. That I cannot control all things. That I do not know better than my God.
It has taught me that I have a choice in this life. Am I going to bind myself to my human frailty and incompetence? Or fasten my life, my hopes, my dreams to the One who said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11).
It’s knot a difficult choice. I choose God.
This week’s prayer can be found at https://simplyjoy.online/prayers/mistakes-prayers/unravel-me-2/