Stuck: Unable to progress. Unable to find the solution or answer. To be at a loss. To remain in a specific place or situation typically perceived as being unpleasant. To be fixed in a particular situation and unable to move.
I truly believe there is nothing worse in life than feeling STUCK!!!
Oftentimes we hear phrases like "I'm torn between two opinions." "I'm between a rock and a hard place." "My back is against the wall." All of these phrases represent someone who is at a loss and does not know how to gain.
I'm sure many of us have experienced this feeling of not knowing and the fear of not so much the unknown but the fear of feeling suffocated, feeling bound, being free but not feeling free. The weight of this posture and position in life can cause critical health issues that are not always visible to the eye because being stuck is an internal anguish. It's an internal torment. This feeling leads to stress, weight loss, weight gain, causes anxiety, and even heart failures. Feeling stuck...feeling trapped can actually be deadly.
I am reminded of the scripture with the man who had demons. This man lived in the tombs (also what we know as the graveyard). This man was not dead yet he lived in a desolate situation. A place with no life. A place with no hope. A place of nothingness. Yet this man was not able to be physically subdued by anyone. He was so strong no one could hold him. Chained hand and foot he would break loose every time. Yet all day and night he would cry out and cut himself with stones. The anguish that he was experiencing superseded his physical ability. This man was free to leave the place of death but his mental and spiritual anguish caused him to feel stuck and unable to move!!
Have you ever been in a place in life where you didn't have the answer? All you knew was that you wanted to be free. You ever been in a place in life where other people saw and recognized your strength but internally you felt weak and defeated? Ever been in a place in life where you were doing all you could but you could never seem to make any progress? You were just "surviving"dare I say "existing"? Do you remember what that felt like? Do you remember how the disappointments in life led to your discouragement and discouragement brought you to depression; and before you knew it you felt helpless, lifeless, defeated, and totally STUCK!
Do you know that there are people on our jobs, in our homes, in our churches that are in a place called Stuck! They don't know how to move forward from "here"...
Many people don't understand that just because you have things, doesn't mean that you are not susceptible to being STUCK! Some have that big moment in life, you know the moment when everything is great. Almost surreal! But then there's no progression from that moment. And not only are they not able to surpass it they're not even able to replicate it. Why? Because they feel STUCK!
Many men and women and even children commit suicide because of this. They have no one to turn to because of social status' and society's expectations of who "wealth and fame" have said they are. You know the expectations....We are to show no signs of weakness or vulnerability we are to hide our scars. Hide our truth because no one can know that we haven't "arrived"...
Well I'm here to let you know I've been in that place called STUCK. For a long time I lived there. I had no answers. I was lost. And all I knew was I was told to be discreet. Manage my pain. Keep it on the low. While it covered my title, it also killed my character. I became the strong man in the tomb. Numbing my pain caused me to live like a zombie. I was self medicating just as the man at the tomb was inflicting self harm on himself. I was inflicting self harm to my body. May not have been in the same manner but my response to that moment caused me to make poor decisions. Just as the mans strength would keep people from keeping him bound; my knowledge, pride and rebellion kept people from keeping me bound. But when no one was around I cried day and night, because I was stuck!! I wanted to be free but didn't know how to get free! I wanted to move forward but something was holding me. It felt like I was carrying weights in my shoes, and on my shoulders and in my mind. Where was my deliverance?! Where was my refuge? Some of us do all we can. We go to college, we go to bible school, we go to church, we go to prayer meetings and in the moment we think we're okay but as soon as we leave we wrestle with the spirit of "Stuck" all day and all night. Even the people closest to us are unable to understand because we can't even explain it!! How did we get here? After serving, after preaching, after healing and praying for others, after delivering a life changing word. Our lives don't change?! Still living at home with our parents, still in a mentally, spiritually, physically and financially abusive relationship and hopeless!!
Well I'm here to tell you that it's in these moments that God is seeking our attention. It's in these moments that He is looking to pour into us. Just as He did Jacob when He wrestled with the angel until daybreak; just as He did when He put Jonah in the belly of the fish; just as He did when Hezekiah had to turn His face to the wall; just as He did when Job cursed the day he was born; just as He did when Jesus cried out My God My God why have you forsaken me?!!
God knows the trying and testing of our faith produces endurance.
Our light afflictions is for a moment, it works for us a far more exceeding weight of glory. But hold on.....it works for us!! What is causing you to feel bound is actually working for you!
God prepared a fish to swallow Jonah! The fish was appointed! Because had any other sea animal got hold to Jonah he would have never lived to carry out God's will.
God allowed and gave permission to the enemy to afflict Job. Because although his body was touched it was established in heaven that Job's life would be spared.
Hezekiah was promised death no doubt he was stuck!! But Hezekiah began to pray and reminded God of his faithfulness and life was added to him. A place of stuck became a place of deliverance..
And Jesus after asking His Father to let the cup pass from Him; the cup He knew He was assigned to... had to die to His will in order to realize that He died to set people free.
Have you not considered that being bound for a moment can actually cause you to set people free...for life?
What is God sparing you from in this time of STUCK?! What is God ministering to you while you are alone in your hospital bed or home alone with no spouse or childless with feelings of no hope? What is God trying to get your attention about?
My life has been full of "Stuck" moments but I know that I'm never "stuck" without purpose. I know that I will never be bound as long as I am in Christ. For who the Son sets free is free indeed!
So yes...while you are living with your parents, while you are going in and out of the hospital, while you are going from job to job the trying of your faith is working for you! My friend and brother would say "it will all make sense after while." Just remember while you're struggling to keep the faith..Jacob wrestled for not only his faith but the blessing attached to it!