Stuckness
The state of being stuck
Like going to sleep
with your feet in a wet gray mixture. Only to wake up and
…discover its
concrete.
Well, my friends
there’s any number of scriptures which allude to the inestimable privilege of a
man or a woman to fulfill God’s highest and best.
“The Lord will
accomplish that which concerns me.”
(Psalms 138:8)
(and)
“Before I ever took
my first breath, You planned every day of my life.”
(Psalms 139:16)
(and)
“Faithful is He who
has called you and He will also do it.”
1st
Thess. 5:24)
(and)
“He who
has begun a good work in you will fulfill it until the day of Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)
And yet, as a pastoral counselor of almost two and a half
decades I have met far too many Christian men and women, boys and girls who
should know better, and who should be concerned enough to ‘do something about
it’ but who are …just plain stuck.
I often share the story of the lead man on the safari with
my clients and interns.
It seems this fellow was point man for a group of game
hunters in Africa, and suddenly he walked into a pool of quicksand. Strangely
enough, ‘Jim’ expressed absolutely no fear, and oddly enough, no concern about
getting out of the morass.
Well, the other game hunters began throwing him ropes, and
begged their friend to ‘grab hold.’ Jim not only failed to grab hold, but he
threw the ropes back as quickly as they landed around him.
Jim is up to his knees. Jim is up to his thighs. Now Jim
is up to his waist. Jim is up to chest. Jim is up to his neck. And now Jim
disappears out of sight. All that remains are a few bubbles on the surface of
the quicksand. It was reported that the last anyone saw of old Jim he had a
contented smile on his face.
Pt. II
Among the thousands
of clients who have ‘darkened the door’ of my office, there have been a
significant number of folks who, I am convinced, would not have walked from one
wall to the other to discover an answer to the dilemma which brought them to me
in the first place.
Scripture admonishes us,
“These things ought not to be.”
Of course, there are
plenty enough excuses for why people behave the way they do, and plenty of
justification for their lack of momentum.
Childhood trauma.
Poor role modeling. The lack of a personal mentor. A dearth of ambition. A
series of 'unlucky breaks.’ Etc.
And while I never
discount such variables in an individual’s life, excuses cannot become reasons,
and excuses have the potential to keep us stuck throughout the course of an
entire lifetime.
Following is a
portion of an interview by Laura Hillenbrand; the author of the best-selling
novel, “Seabiscuit.”
(As a bit of a
preface, it might help you to know that Ms. Hillenbrand experienced food
poisoning in 1987 and, as a result, developed a rare and life-long reaction to
this illness; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, with additional symptoms of Vertigo).
She says,
“Writing this book was immensely important to me, but my
illness made it very hard. I had to accept that there would be a large physical
price to pay for undertaking this project, and that I would have to pare away
the rest of my life to save my strength for what I wanted to do.
There were days when it was almost impossible to move, but I
usually found something I still had strength to do. If I was too dizzy to
write, I did interviews. If I was too weak to sift through books, I sat still
and wrote. Sometimes I worked while in bed, lying on my back and scribbling on
a pad with my eyes closed.
Though it was hard to do this, there was never a point at
which I became discouraged. These subjects were just too captivating for me to
ever consider abandoning the project. The price I paid was steep. Within hours
of presenting the manuscript to the publishers, my health collapsed
completely.”
She concludes,
“As difficult as the illness made the writing and research
process, I think I also have it to thank for spurring me into the project.
Being sick has truncated my life dramatically, drastically narrowing the
possibilities for me. For fifteen years, I have had very little contact with
the world. The illness left me very few avenues for achievement, or for
connecting with people. Writing is my ‘salvation’; the one little area of my
life where I can still reach out into the
world and create something that will
remain after I am gone. It enables me to
define myself as a writer instead of a sick person.”
I think Laura
Hillenbrand almost literally “wrestled with demons” …and won. I think she has a
great deal to teach us about the tenacity that we must possess to overcome the
tenaciousness of life itself.
I see people like
this brave lady, and I can only question how dare we make any excuses for our
willingness to live out mediocre, stagnant, unfulfilled lives on the earth.
Pt. III
There are people among us whom, I believe, have too much in
common with the fictional character, Scarlett O’Hara, of the movie, “Gone With
the Wind.”
As the movie is well on its way to a conclusion, we see
Scarlett musing about the state of her dilapidated plantation, and as she
reflects on ‘what comes next,’ she is heard to say,
“I’ll just have to think about that tomorrow.”
I admit it’s a rather trite and well-used phrase, but “There
are no tomorrows.” Whatever God has set in our hearts to do we have to do
…today.
I have often used the phrase, “Motivation is highly
overrated” (because)
“Motivation is little more than a feeling” (and) “If we wait ‘til we ‘feel like it’ we may be 103.”
“Motivation is little more than a feeling” (and) “If we wait ‘til we ‘feel like it’ we may be 103.”
I think we need to do what we need to do because it needs to
be done.
My friends, I think we’re all guilty of falling into the
State of Stuckness, and we are too close to avoiding the destiny God had in
mind for us, as individuals, before He made the worlds.
I have an adage I have often shared with clients.
"Change is only possible when the rewards associated
with the future are deemed greater than the convenience associated with the
present."
Too many people are too taken up with short term satisfaction
while conveniently ignoring the ultimate calamity of long term results.
If we are to have any hope of achieving all that God planned
for you and me, before He made the worlds, we desperately need to grab hold of
that proverbial rope, and pull ourselves out of the morass of convenience and
procrastination.
By
William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 25. Copyright pending
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