A lot of us feel stuck. This is not a novel perception; this is human. We are stuck trying to be perfect. Stuck in sadness. Stuck feeling numb. Stuck pursuing more stuff to make us happy. Stuck in something we can’t name. Most of our stuck places are invisible to the world, which keeps us from dealing with them.
We know this is true for teenagers, but do we really ever grow up? I still struggle with some of the same insecurities I had in junior high at 30-something. We just learn how to pen ourselves in and be mature about it; but we still feel it.
I wrote Stuck, because I know I am not alone in this. Yet we look out from our secret wars and see people who smile peacefully and seem to be all right—and we smile back at them.
I’m done smiling.
God is about doing something on this planet. He is about doing something in me, and as long as I am privately fighting and losing inside, He is not getting a thing done through or in me. He has a plan for these spaces inside of us, the places we feel broken; but we have to go to Him.
I think we all live wishing to be fixed. We want to be happy and put together and certainly content. I think God wants more for us. He wants us to need Him. What if we needed nothing? What if our lives were perfect, we were never needy, perfectly secure, happy everyday?
We would love that, but we never would go looking for God if everything around us and about us was perfect. There are foundational reasons that I wake up most mornings with an ache in my soul so painful it physically hurts, yet I am one who feels incredibly blessed. We all feel more messed up inside more than we would like to admit; but there are purposes for the aches and broken spots inside of us.
They point to something more, something bigger that is broken, something bigger than the typical things that make me discontent; but we have to go to Jesus—not some self-help fantasy that only works temporarily. He is a Person, and He wants us to need Him, go to Him and for Him alone to heal us.
So how do we connect Jesus to our struggles and others?
1. Lead Honestly:
Talk about where you are broken. Don’t hide.
2. Create Safe Spaces:
Grace should create safe places. We all are broken and all need God.
3. Give Jesus:
Go to Jesus and take others to Him. Do not give advice or try to make people feel better. Give them a living God who actually can press into their souls and settle into their broken places.
