Last week I was in Chicago with a team from NewSpring and some of us were supposed to fly out of Chicago last Friday at 4:30 and arrive in Greenville at 7:20.
We had heard earlier that O’Hare was experiencing delays (BIG SURPRISE) and that we might not make it out of there on time. Uh…yeah—several hours later we finally made it onto the plane.
I can’t explain the feeling of an airport delay…if you’ve been there you know exactly what I am talking about—you feel stuck!!! I would have to say it is one of the most helpless feelings in the world. What do you do? You can only look in those silly, overpriced stores for so long!!! So…after doing all you can do you just wind up sitting there and staring into space.
Ever been there?
How about in life? I would have to say that I know a ton of people that feel about there life just like I felt in that airport—stuck! Maybe it’s you…
You feel stuck in a career or a major that you are not enjoying, but you have decided that you might as well go ahead and push through the pain and just deal with being miserable for the rest of your life.
You feel stuck in a marriage that has gone south…you refuse to get divorced (OR…maybe you are considering it) and you just don’t see HOW things could ever get better. You WANT to make the right decision to make things right…but just don’t know how.
You are so financially strapped it isn’t funny. I mean you’re poor that you have to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and lick other people’s fingers!!! And you just don’t see a way out—you feel stuck, stranded…and isolated, you know, like you are the only one. And though you try—you keep making bad decisions.
Maybe you are stuck in a bad dating relationship…you know you should not be in it…but you feel like the present on the shelf on Christmas Eve…and that if you “let this one go” that you might get passed over. You feel stuck.
And finally—maybe it’s your relationship with Jesus. You have been told that God forgives sins…that Jesus died for you and wants to forgive you…but the voice inside your head says, “That’s true for everyone except you…you are stuck…” And that’s the way you feel…like there is NO WAY OUT!!!
I think we’ve all been there at some point in our lives. AND…as I have been learning over the last year—I believe the last thing that God wants for any area of our lives is for us to feel stuck. I believe that God wants Christians not to merely survive…but THRIVE!!!
So…how do we get out of this? How do we get out of the pattern of making bad decision after bad decision, which causes us to fall deeper and deeper into this pit we’re in?
I will be addressing this tonight at our First Wednesday service…be here at 6:30 for an intense time of worship (Lee will be back) and a time of teaching as I talk about what God has shown me regarding being stuck in a rut…and how WHO we listen to can either cause us to go deeper in despair…or pull us out of the pit and cause us to soar.
If you can’t be here for some reason…like maybe you live in Texas or something…you can download the message here (all of our First Wednesday services are on this page) sometime tomorrow. I can’t wait…this will be intense.
Two more things…
#1 - NewSpringers - We brought consultants in this weekend to examine our church, to walk around and see what was going on. One of them was Tony Morgan and he posted this about our church. Thanks for the kind words Tony. (For the record—Tony & his crew gave us PLENTY to work on!!!)
#2 - It looks like tomorrow I will be dealing with a subject on this blog that is going to be very tense. I will have to say that what I deal with tomorrow will probably cause more controversy than any of my previous posts in blogging history. It will cause some of you to turn red—others may take me off of their blog links…I know tons of e-mails will be heading this way…and so, if you can’t take a pastor dealing with an issue that 99.9% of other pastors run from—you might want to take a break from this place tomorrow! :-) Can’t wait!!!