Bubble Gum and Bailing Wire

There is a saying in the farm world that farms are held together with bubble gum and bailing wire — and boy is it true. Trust me when I say that the beautiful magazine farms you see are not realistic and are the definitely the exception, not the rule. Every day, new challenges arise, cows break through fences, dogs escape the pasture, chickens manage to evade the illusive fence line. So, what do you do when you are in need of a solution to these challenges? Well, bubble gum and bailing wire of course. Or, for our farm it’s actually zip ties. Wow, they are a life-saver.

It occurred to me today that life is a lot like a farm. It can be filled with numerous challenges, unforeseen difficulties, heart breaks, and tears. It’s messy and many of us don’t look like the movie stars or resemble the perfectly put together characters in the fiction novels. People are messy too and we often need bailing wire and bubble gum to make it through the day or certain seasons in our life.

Never has this been more evident to me than it was today. You see, today was a significant milestone for me. Today was the first time I was able to tackle a farm project in a very long time. My neighbor asked if we would take her ducklings that she got and in order to take them, we had to modify one of our chicken tractors (what we use to pasture raise our chickens) see photo. You move them every day to keep the chickens or in this case the ducklings safe and on fresh grass.

You see, for the past three years, I have had many health struggles. I spent eight months in bed, unable to even sit up because of the pain I was in. I was only comfortable lying down or walking to the kitchen for short breaks to get food or a drink. For most of the time, I was only able to lay in bed. I used to think there was a statute of limitations for health challenges, but apparently, I was wrong. I’ve had three surgeries, two of which were ankle surgeries and two broken toes all leaving me with long stretches of immobilization / little activity and many weeks in bed. I do not say this for your pity and I am fully aware that there are other people who have faced more difficult seasons/health challenges, however, for me, this was incredibly difficult. I was definitely not one of those people who can face health challenges with such grace and peace and are able to rise above their health struggles.

So today, as I was using “bubble gum and bailing wire” to modify our chicken tractor, I realized that just like this tractor that isn’t very pretty and is barely being held together, it isn’t much different to how I’ve felt these last three years. It hasn’t been pretty, I have dealt with more pain and tears than I could have imagined. I was barely hanging on, and I mean BARELY. I realized that what has kept me together these three years has only been my faith in God;

He has been my bubble gum and bailing wire.

I don’t know how I would have gotten through this season without my mustard seed (and I mean mustard seed faith) that God would get me through this. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been angry, discouraged, defeated and everything else in between. But even in the darkest time, my faith has kept me hanging on and held together.

So if that’s you – if you are struggling and barely hanging on. If you are broken, battered, and not very pretty right now (I mean emotionally/spiritually) then I see you and I know exactly how you feel. You are not alone in your quiet desperation or in the moments where you can’t stop crying or you cry when someone asks you the question. The best advice I can say to you right now is:

Don’t give up, hold on, no matter how much it hurts.

Even if you are barely holding on by one string of bailing wire, don’t let go. It will get better, this season will end. I believe that, even if it doesn’t look like it now. I would encourage you to find someone who you can confide in – get other Christians to pray with you, to lift you up and not face this season alone. Send me a message from this site and I will pray with you. I mean it. I know it’s hard, I know it’s not easy to ask for help, but you HAVE to. You were never meant to go through this alone.

And if that is you and you don’t have faith in God, then I would encourage you to turn to Him, to seek Him and to ask Him to come and be a part of your life. Ask Him to help you get through this season and to give you strength, even if its bubble gum strength, to get to the other side. Find a church and find other Christians who can come alongside you and help you through this season.

I am believing I’ve made it through the challenging season and today felt like a watershed for me. My body wasn’t broken; I could walk, I could stand. Putting chicken wire around the bottom of our chicken tractor never felt so good.