Unstuck

I remember when we started this series, I wondered if people would actually click on episodes or posts called “Sad” or “Overwhelmed”. I thought we probably should put a positive spin on this. And I remembered thinking that when I released this Bible study, we called it STUCK. And honestly, our publisher had a problem with it because it was negative, and yet, I also knew that this was something we all related to, and that every single one of these emotions was something that we were feeling every day. Sometimes you just need to call a spade a spade and say it, “this is what we're struggling with”. Every one of us feels these things, and we don't talk about them enough. And so you clicked on them. You clicked, and I'm really grateful.

It always feels like brave work when we talk about these things, when we talk about the real issues that we're facing, and I know because I've gotten emails and comments and reviews from you that you haven't just listened. You've done hard work. Some of you have started therapy, some of you have confessed sin, some of you have admitted suicidal thoughts for the first time. We've gotten some unbelievable feedback from this. So I just want you to know we see you, we pray for you. We carry the heaviness and sobriety of that. We know that this isn't going out into space. This is going into your homes and into your families and into your real-life relationships and your real-life struggles.

So just thank you. Thank you for taking us with you. Thank you for doing the work. Thank you for not glazing over the hard things. This is the last week, and we called it UNSTUCK.  We know that a few weeks in, saying “unstuck” is not some banner that you put over your head because you got through a podcast season. It's something that is present in your life because of the power of God. And so we're clear about our spot. We're not thinking that we are more powerful than we are. We know that we're talking about and hopefully taking you to the One that is. 

I want to leave you with what I believe is the most helpful way forward: Change is a process. Change rarely happens overnight. 

Although, I have had moments in my life where clarity has come in such a big way that I believe I've taken a big leap forward rather than just a step. And I hope that this series has done that for you - it's caused a bit of a leap. So I want to be realistic about change and how long that takes.

The best way that I've been able to grow in my emotional health is to find consistent patterns in my life, to be honest about my emotion, and to work through it. Those patterns can look seasonal. They can look monthly, they can look weekly, they can look daily. So daily for me is time with Jesus. If I don't have that, typically I start off my day in the wrong place. I mean, it's just a fact. I roll out of bed and I meet with God and I have peace and patience and joy and contentment, or I don't and I don't. And so I want to be clear that that is the most important thing that you can do, I believe to change. Day in, day out. 

And then weekly is community. So weekly you confess, you meet with a few people, and all of you can have this. Some of you would say, “I don't have small groups at my church”. Well, you can build one. All you have to do is bring a few friends together once a week at a regular time. In the past, I've done every week over lunch, and I mean, people brought their kids, and we’d meet at Chick-fil-A sometimes. Currently, we're doing right before school pickup for about an hour, and we just each kind of confess, “this is what I'm struggling with this week”. And it's super simple. We don't really do a Bible study. We really just dig into our lives and make sure we're holding each other accountable and that we're moving forward in life and not getting stuck. 

The other thing we do monthly, or you can do monthly, is counseling. Now that might be a mentor, that might be somebody with wisdom in your life that's older, but I would say having a regular chance to get the floor where you really can for about an hour and a half, two hours, whatever you get, talk -  where you are in the hot seat, where you're actually wrestling through whatever it is that you need to work through and grow.

And all of this is about being honest about where we are and striving to move forward and not stay stuck. If we're stuck, that's going to affect every relationship we have, that's going to affect and stunt every ministry that we have, any thing that we want to move forward for the kingdom of God - that's all going to be limited by our emotional health, just like Pete Scazzero says. So we've got to grow in our emotional health. 

We love you guys. Thank you so much for being part of the season and we cannot wait to tell you where we're going next.