Stuck??

This is from one of the sites that I frequent. I really liked this column!!

The Glory of Being Stuck
by Mike Yaconelli (Youth Specialties)
"Getting stuck is not only a necessary part of spirituality, it is a prerequisite to spiritual growth."
If I were to diagram my spiritual life, it would look something like this:
A continual series of ups and downs, through all of my life, moving in a slow upward direction, although some of the lows would seem lower than before and some of the highs would seem higher than before.
When I picture this graph, it is not encouraging at first, because the longer I live, the further away the end of the graph appears. It is very much like the elusive end of the rainbow—the closer I get, the further away it seems. And yet...yet there is something you cannot see on a one-dimensional diagram, something you cannot express with lines and words. There is a hidden excitement that begins to surface, a tingling of the soul that quickens my consciousness as I gaze at this trail of God in my life. I suddenly realize a great truth—the up-and-down syndrome of my life is the fingerprint of God on my soul! It is the remains of my struggle of faith, the ups and downs of my ongoing dialogue with the Father. It is the way growth looks.
I am beginning to realize that the spiritual life is not so much progress as it is process. It is not a continuous climb upward as much as it is a continuous climb. It is not the victories that matter so much as the going on after the defeats. The longer the erratic dance of faith goes on, the less you care about what God is doing, and the more you want to know about God. Spirituality is, after all, about intimacy with God.
Look at the graph for a minute. Notice the low spots—flat, long at times, surrounded by highs. Whatever the low spots are, they appear to be negative. If the high spots represent the "good" or "positive" in my spiritual life and the low spots represent the "bad" or "negative" in my relationship with God, then obviously the high spots are to be sought after and the lows are to be avoided.
But what if we do something radical? What if we remove those kind of value judgments from this graph? What if, in place of concepts like good and bad, positive and negative, high and low, we replace our value judgments with words like "stalled" and "moving," or "listening" and "acting," or "stopping" and "starting," or "waiting" and "not waiting"? What does that do to our understanding of the spiritual life? Maybe waiting is "good" and not waiting is "bad." Maybe stopping is better than starting, listening better than acting, and stalling better than moving. Maybe one cannot happen without the other. Maybe stopping is necessary to starting, maybe acting cannot happen without listening first.
Of course, I do not believe there is any "maybe" about it. I believe that our understanding of spirituality has been distorted and ruined by our artificial judgments and our one-dimensional understanding of our relationship with God.
Let me point out a couple of interesting characteristics of this graph. Every high is followed by a low and every high is preceded by a low. Maybe what the graph means is that you cannot achieve a high without first achieving a low. Maybe lows are not low at all, but just part of the highs. I would like to abandon the high/low model and rename these parts as "stuck" and "unstuck." Maybe, getting stuck is necessary before we can get unstuck...which means that getting stuck is actually a wonderful place to be.
When you look at it like this, then getting stuck is not only a necessary part of spirituality, it is a prerequisite to spiritual growth.
Most of the Church considers being stuck a negative, a sin of failure or burn-out, an indication that a person isn’t working hard enough on their spiritual life. It's a report card on personal Bible reading and prayer, and the grade is F. If you feel stuck in your spiritual life, then you aren’t doing something right because no one should be stuck with God.
Nothing could be more untrue. The truth is that everyone should be stuck with God many times because it is the prerequisite to being unstuck.
Being stuck is a great moment. It may be characterized by frustration, loneliness, or detachment, but those things are only the vocabulary of our souls telling us we are in danger. It is the cry of our souls craving for more. It is our longings and yearnings trying to get our attention. It is a summons, a call from within. It is the glorious music of disaffection and dissatisfaction with where we are now. It is the anguish of our interior life pleading with us—not to give up, but to give in. It is the Holy Spirit stopping us dead in our tracks so we can read the words that God has written on our hearts—surrender.
Surrender.
Put your arms around your soul, embrace your anguish, respond to your summons from God. Get ready for the adventure of growing on to the next part of your life. Getting stuck is worth whatever anguish you must go through just so you can hear God say to you, "Hang on, you are about to get unstuck."

The Tongue

What words do I say on a daily basis. Do I build other people up? Do I encourage those who stumble? Am I able to show hope and Love to people that are lost? I've been thinking a whole bunch about the power of words, the power of the tongue. Pray on this!! James puts it well in Chapter 3:

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Come to Fellowship http://www.myfcb.org/ in Baldwin Georgia and meet one of the most real/passionate ministries on the Planet!!

Yo Yo Yo...Check this out...'nuff said!!

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We need more stand up and get it done...i love it!!

Sinning

Let me clarify my last blog on sin. Romans 3:23 says: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"...I do not think this gives us a license to keep sinning or abuse Grace, however I also don't think this gives us the right to "act" holier than others or put on a fake show, thus hiding our true nature. Check Romans 14 for a little more insight.

Most people can see right through fake!! God's Love motivates me, not just the fear of his wrath.

Talk

Duet. 6

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

God is important. His Love for us is important. Our Love for Him is Paramount. I want to talk about God more than other "stuff." I want God Talk to be second nature for my Kids, blended smoothly into real life...understanding the imperfection of human nature...enjoying Spirituality, without the pious superior attitude many Christians develop. After all we "all have sinned" according to Romans.

Growing in Him!!

Psalm 25 (Verse 4 is my focus)

1[a] To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

WOW!! Show me your ways Lord. Just thinking about verse four alone is enough to blow my mind. Go ahead Larry, be honest. If God's guidance is at the forefront of my thoughts on a daily basis, my actions reflect the change. If His guidance is way back in the back of my mind, I make decisions "in the flesh" or on my own. I much prefer His way!!

Love You Guys!!

In the Beginning...

My daughter asked about my wedding band tonight. I explained what it was. She then wanted to know why she wasn't at the wedding (she is three). It's kind of funny the type of conversations that really make us think about the past. Jennifer and I married in 1999 with a "plan" to wait a few years for children. I am so glad that God's plans are sometimes different than the ones we "cook up" on our own. We have three children now; Levi (6), James (4), and Jessica (3). Yes, we are outnumbered, but honestly cannot imagine life any differently than it is right now.

At this point (if you are even still reading) you may be asking yourself why blog this? What's the point? Simple. RELATIONSHIP. Some of the folks that have hit this blog don't know us at all, others may not know us well. As I continue to blog away, I'll hit you with bits and pieces from our past. It won't be as mysterious and crazy an episode of LOST, but why bother starting relationships if trust is not built up enough to get the relationship to a meaningful level. Once there is some depth, then real life issues can be faced honestly. I think this is what many people want, even if they do not admit it...(more later)

I Love Fellowship Church!!