There are moments where I just feel stuck. I feel as if I am making no impact in the lives of those around me. As if my day to day job has become monotonous and purposeless. As if my going and coming is meaningless in a flow of “stuck-ness.” Have you ever felt that way before? Have you ever had the feeling that you are frozen or fixed in one place and can’t be moved? If you have, then that my friend is the feeling of stuck–ness.
While I don’t advocate remaining in stuck-ness, I have come to realize that even in seasons where we feel stuck, those moments are neither meaningless or purposeless. Many of us do not realize that our day to day living, monotonous being is impacting the lives around us. While to us our lives may seem simplistic and unappealing, to those watching they are being directly impacted. Think of it this way. Have you ever walked into a store only to be scared by a manikin? The manikin that scared you is the epitome of stuck-ness. They are frozen and forever fixed in the place they were positioned, yet they impacted your life. They scared or alarmed you. Similarly, we may be manikins in this world, yet we are impacting those around us.
While in seasons of stuck-ness what do you do? For the majority of us, we warmly welcome the season and grudgingly envy the lives of those around us. For some of you, you have simply accepted the fact that your life is stuck where it is and you’ve given no effort outside of your daily responsibilities. Can I tell you that your season of stuck-ness is just as important as your season of freedom. What you do in both impacts the lives around you. What you do in each season plays a part of your story. For some of us we’ve been stuck for a couple months to a year trying to find some direction in life. For others we may have been stuck for years or for the majority of our lives. What story will you leave behind?
Are you where you were 10 years ago?
In the bible the prophet Isaiah writes God saying,
Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.
The reason so many of us remain stuck is because we dwell in the state we are in. We’ve become comfortable with our going and comings not realizing we are making significant impact around us. We are going through life wishing away the current moment when the exact moments we are wishing away is what’s shaping who we are. We call ourselves Christians living a stuck life, internally screaming purposeless living and those around us can plainly see it. We try to hide behind smiles, nice clothes and our career that we are doing well, when in all honesty, we feel stuck. And while in our stuck-ness we do nothing about it. In fact, we encourage those around us that our state of being stuck is quite okay.
Here’s what I am trying to get to. While we will all have seasons that vary from the other, you were not meant to remain frozen in time. You were never designed to live the same year over and over again. While some days, months and maybe years it may be a fight for purposeful living, even in your state of stuck-ness we need not forget that what we do plays a key role in the story we leave behind and the testament we present before the God we serve.
The way you live today is a written portion of the history you leave behind. While we may feel as if our lives are monotonous, mundane, meaningless and maybe even purposeless, those around us see differently. They see a life that’s living and doing. We’d like to pretend we are minikin’s, when really we are simply living human beings frozen in our thoughts and intangible imagination. Your stuck-ness has purpose. What you do in your state of “stuck-ness” determines how long you remain there.
What are you doing in stuck-ness?
One reply on “Stuck-ness”
I have felt stuck for a a few years now. There have been times when I’ve had victories and felt less stuck only to go back to that same feeling. And nothing is changing in my life. I’ve become accustomed to accept the stuckness but now I realize that nothing changes if nothing changes. So I’m trying to lessen the time that I “sit in my own poop” and start taking action.