Unstuck

Ever feel stuck?  I mean feet in soul sucking mud that pulls you down as hard as you’re pulling to get out…you ain’t going anywhere stuck in a place in life.  You’ve been stuck here…for a while.  And what really sticks in your gut and rubs you raw is that you used to have someone stuck here with you but he/she has moved on and you are bumfuddled as to how they did it.

I know there are TONS of folk stuck, otherwise all those self help books wouldn’t be flying off the shelves and then collecting dust at home after reading the intro and maybe the first chapter and then TRYING with all your might to live that out…and a month later you are still S.T.U.C.K..  So the book stays on the shelf and we go back to self stuck wallowing and bemoaning why oh why am I still here.  Why oh why can’t I get past this?

Maybe you’ve even cried out to God when you were stuck.

You see it in the movies, on tv and in life everywhere…it’s become a joke even.  A guy promises God to be a good boy if He gets him out of this and then the answer comes… he gets out and runs off saying “Boy what a break, God didn’t even have to do anything.”  And then he doesn’t have to keep his promise he made as part of the deal to get out of where he was stuck…and he runs head first back into the circle of stuck with glee in his eyes and a skip in his step.

Maybe you weren’t and still aren’t sure God’s really there but it’s been worth a try just to get out of where you don’t want to be.  Maybe you’re a believer and you know that He’s there and you’ve cried out because you really do believe He can get you out of this place.  Maybe just maybe your situation changed for a while.  You felt unstuck.  You felt like you were moving.  You felt like things were getting better.  Maybe you thanked God.  Maybe just maybe you believed He really did it that time…but here you are stuck again.

So what the heck happened?

I do believe there are a few ways to get unstuck but during my Bible study time this morning one way JUMPED out at me. There are 2 sets of verses we have to look at first…

Daniel 2:21b “He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning”

Matthew 13:12 “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him”

No wait just a cotton pickin’ minute…God gives to those to ALREADY have?  Now that just does NOT seem fair!  Why wouldn’t He give to those to need, who are stuck???

Ok before we get into it, read one more verse with me and sing along, come on, I know you know the words to this one… Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”  There’s nothing here about giving just to those who already have.

Alright..here we go.  So here’s my thought.  I’m stuck.  I ask God to help me out .  I get unstuck  (that’s God giving, my friends)and I know that He did it — but then I get stuck again and I’m left scratching my head as to why. I did Matthew 7:7 and asked and He gave (because that’s what Matthew 7:7 says will happen) but where’s my Matthew 13:12?  Why isn’t He still giving? And why the heck am I back where I started?

Here’s are REAL questions I need to ask myself… How did He get me out when I asked for help?  What did He do?  Was there a lesson there?  Did I listen to the lesson?  Did I learn at all?

You see God gives to those who ask.  It doesn’t always look like what we think we wanted.  It hardly ever looks like what we expected.  But He does give.  Ask, seek, knock…He will respond.  So once He does should we just run off merrily along our way or should we take the time to look back and remember where we were and what has all gone down and how He got us out of being stuck (totally biblical by the way…check out Deuteronomy 8- it screams REMEMBER!!!!)

So we look back and we LISTEN AND LEARN and we CHOSE NOT TO GO BACK to our old ways that got us stuck BUT to embrace the lesson God had for us.  We have been given to…and we accepted what was given and examined it and learned it and incorporated that part of God in our lives….and now life is a whole new playing field.  We might get stuck again but it’s in something new and it’s not as bad as the last stuck (at least we’re not back there in the same old loop of stuck-ed-ness) and we ask, seek, knock again and dang if God doesn’t show up AGAIN…with something new to learn….and we learn it…and then all of a sudden you look back and you realize HOW FAR you’ve come in life.  You scratch your head when you say something totally smart and wise and wonder “Where in the HECK did that some from”.  You have people asking you for advice instead of you dragging yourself to yet another seminar, lesson, teaching, book, etc…people are coming to you and all you know is to tell them, I did what God told me to do.  I listened and learned my lessons and moved on.

WHAT HAPPENED????  It’s simple.  God got you unstuck.  And instead of a quick “thanks” and then running merrily, blindly, head first back to where to started, you LEARNED.  God gave and you accepted and instead of throwing the gift back and diving head first back into what got you stuck, you kept the gift and learned from it and GREW.  You didn’t go back to where you initially started but instead you started a new level on a new playing field. And the next time you got stuck you grew again…and you jumped onto another new playing field of wisdom and life is looking better and better.  And NOW you see your Matthew 13:12 because you’re seeing where He keeps on giving…because you keep on accepting and learning.

And all you did was accept the freedom He gave you, listened to what He said to you, remembered where you were, chose not to return there and learned and gained the wisdom and knowledge He loves to give.