In1968, Pete Seeger sang a ballad about a platoon of Marines in basic training who were commanded to ford the “Big Muddy” river. They wore full packs and had been hiking all day. The captain was lost. He thought they were crossing a small tributary. Soon he had them waist-deep in the Big Muddy. When the men begged to turn back, the big captain said to push on.
Often in life, we get to one of those places where we are a hundred percent committed to moving forward, even if it kills us. In the real 1942 news story behind Seeger’s song, the river took the captain’s life. We consider persistence to be a virtue, but stubbornness a sin. What’s the difference? Obviously, stubbornness is related to pride and our desire to be in control. We want to be in charge of our own lives, even if we are headed in the wrong direction. Those of us who have a talent for self-delusion will soon find ourselves in a position where we get to play God. Parents push their kids into rebellion and depression; bosses order their employees to work in unhealthy environments; we wade into the habit of working late into the night shift, even though our families need us at home. We just want to be in control. A president may continue an unjustifiable war, just because he is lost and unwilling to turn back. He just wants to be in control.
In this blog, I wrote about the Big Muddy in 2020. We were waist-deep in COVID, and the big man wanted the economy to press on. It was an election year. He was lost. He encouraged people to ignore the careful roadmap through the pandemic that the CDC was preparing. People died, and our country lost its honored status in the World Health Organization, which works to prevent future pandemics. Now, in 2026, we are wading into a quagmire behind a man who is perpetually lost.
Yesterday, I attended a neighborhood Bible Study which led each of us to question the harm our need to be in control has brought to our lives. We are all captains of our own ships, and sometimes we must admit that we have run aground. Stop playing God. Turn back. Apologize. Rebuild relationships we have harmed. Restore what we have lost.
In the Old Testament lesson many congregations will hear this week, the patriarch Jacob finds himself waist-deep in the big muddy of the Jabbock River. He wants to go forward, but can’t until he wrestles with the One who is the real God of his life. This confrontation leaves Jacob wounded. He limped for the rest of his life because his hip was put out of joint. Tough way to learn a lesson about one’s need to be always in control.