The Mud Flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slues — a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you. It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing-cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some “egregious infraction of the rules,” was ordered into the mud.

Admiral William McRaven

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit — just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the mud flat, it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up — eight more hours of bone-chilling cold.

Admiral William McRaven

The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud, it was hard to hear anything, and then, one voice began to echo through the night — one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two, and two became three, and before long everyone in the class was singing.

Admiral William McRaven

We knew that if one man could rise above the misery, then others could as well. The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing — but the singing persisted. And somehow — the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away.

Admiral William McRaven

If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala — one person can change the world by giving people hope. So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.

Admiral William McRaven

Have You Ever Felt Like Giving Up?

Christians are constantly swimming against the current. TV, movies, comedians, and post-Christian society ridicule Christians for their faith and morality. The call to choose the eternal rather than the temporary, to resist being assimilated into post-Christian secularism, to stand firm with your conscience regardless of the consequences can feel like you're up to your neck in mud and the morning is far away. Satan whispers in your ear, “You can get out of the mud, out of the cold, out of the struggle—just give up your faith, the struggle, your hope.”

Kevin Huddleston

What Hope Do You Have?

Christians believe in the power of one person who changed the world by raising from the dead and giving them a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-5; 3:15-16). The Christian believes that Jesus Christ abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).

What hope do you have to make it out of this world alive?

How's This For A Mud Up To Your Neck Day?

Imagine you've been falsely accused of breaking the law, publicly humiliated, beaten with rods, thrown into prison, put in solitary confinement and placed in stocks for the crime of preaching Jesus Christ.

Would you feel like quiting? Would anyone blame you for wanting to get out of the mud?

Would you break out in sobs or in song?

This is exactly what happened to Paul and Silas in Phillipi (Acts 16:16-24).

Acts 16:25-27

25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.

Singing At Midnight In Prison

In one cell, two Christians were offering up prayer and praise to God.

An earthquake rocked the prison, opened the doors, and loosed their chains. Imagine, the first prison break when no one left. Something bigger and better was happening at that prison that night.

The guard, assuming the prisoners had escaped, was going to kill himself. He had lost hope in life.

After the earthquake, after the fear, when hope for one man seemed lost--the voice of one of the singers called out ...

Acts 16:28-30

28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Acts 16:31-34

31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Who's Going To Start Singing?

Christian, what hope do you have? Of all men we should have hope in Christ and be able to break out in prayer and praise when we are up to our necks in mud.

If you're not a Christian--what hope do you have? Jesus Christ abolished death and brought life an immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10). You can believe in him, obey his gospel and be saved today (1 Corinthians 15:1-5; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 16:30-34).