For those of us who survived the 1960s, we can recall the August 1969 festival known as Woodstock.

Billed as “Three Days of Peace and Music,” the anticipated crowd of 50,000 instead grew to somewhere near a half a million people. All trying to survive those three days in less than ideal circumstances.

Organizers had no way of knowing what such a crisis gathering of humanity would bring. Shortages of food, water, and restroom facilities caused third world-style living conditions. Traffic was unbearable. And then came the rain—which created what has been described as a “mud-caked mess.”

I’m actually surprised no one got electrocuted with all the lighting, guitars, and amplifiers, etc etc. I was not at Woodstock. In fact, I’ve not even been to Woodstock, Illinois. I hear it’s much more civilized.

But the whole chaos from that experience shared by those who were present, reminded me of another recent muddy mess: Burning Man 2023.

I’ve not been to one of their events either. It’s not in the cross hairs of my lifestyle preferences. At all.

However, no Burning Man attendees ever expected to get caught up in the effects of the late August, early September, Nevada weather anomaly. Let’s be clear. Nevada is normally the driest of our fifty states—meaning you can bet your western boots it ain’t gonna rain on your parade.

But it did. Roughly a half an inch smack dab in the middle of the Black Rock City party. A nasty mudfest resulted. It got so bad that the so-called “burners” abandoned their bicycles and vehicles on the desert platform to try and get out. Yuck.

The Burning Man annual event attracts thousands, having grown from what had been mostly an underground gathering to now hosting a range of Hollywood stars, bunches of Silicon Valley types, and those who can afford to jet in and out. That group is joined by the masses of the more ordinary, semi-normal people.

No doubt there were some “ultra hip Illinoisans” attending among the 70,000 of these poor folk who got stranded. Even the fancy fliers were trapped by the mud and, if they did exit, they found a closed airport. It’s enough to make you cry.

Now the important why. Why go to Burning Man? What do you do there?

I turn to their own “mission statement” , which includes:

“Burning Man Project’s mission is to produce the annual event…to guide, nurture and protect the more permanent community created by its culture. Our intention is to generate society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society.”

Oh, and add this in:

“We believe that the experience of Burning Man can produce positive spiritual change in the world.”

Now that’s interesting. So maybe there is a Burning Man theology! Well, sort of.

We read on.

“The touchstone of value in our culture will always be immediacy: experience before theory, moral relationships before politics, survival before services, roles before jobs, embodied support before sponsorship.”

The burning guys and gals attempt to work all this out in a normally-dry, rain free, three day festival. Their mission statement ends with these words:

“We will always burn the Man.”

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

I would encourage you to look over “The 10 Principles of Burning Man.” Noteworthy are the radicals—radical inclusions, radical self-reliance, and radical self-expression.

Of course, if you want to see a REAL radical, look at Jesus of Nazareth! He was so radical in His day that they killed Him! And this after He did miracle after healing miracle to help them.

In fact, one particular healing included mud! In this case, a blind man came to Jesus wanting to see. And it says,

“Then he (Jesus) spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes.” John 9:6 (NLT)

And it worked! Vision restored!

I rather doubt that Jesus is the center of discussion in most Burning Man conversations. Although His name likely came up when cursing their inability to leave the convocation of radical self expression.

Too bad. For all of life’s really important questions, Jesus remains the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Especially when your circumstances leave you feeling stuck in the mud.