Break Free of the Funk!! (The Blue Funk Part Two)

Hello, friends.  Well thank goodness for Ruth or this thing would be a sinking ship!  Well, at least we have the confirmed word of the Lord that's she supposed to be doing this :)  And a great job she's been doing, might I add.  I would like to revisit her blog The Blue (or Pink if you're Robbye) Funk....

First of all I have to agree.  What the heck is going on around here??  One of the reasons I've been so silent lately is that I have been clawing my way through my own funk.  It's hard to write about anything when you're not that inspired. My children drank the Blue Funk Kool-aid and have been a challenge to put it lightly.  We could speculate all day long about why everything's so crazy and weird right now, but why bother.  Ruth did a great job talking about getting out of it.  Here's my two cents for all it's worth: 

Friends, let us not be fooled by the enemy:  whether the source of our funk is ourselves, the enemy or God, the enemy of our souls will take full advantage of our distracted focus and try to derail us from the purpose of God in our lives.  Can I take it a step further and suggest possibly the reason everything is so funky is that he knows and senses that God is about to do something and he's getting a little nervous about it?  In my experience everytime a big breakthrough is coming it seems all hell breaks loose before hand!  All the more reason to stay determined to break free of that which so easily entangles us!  What if something huge is around the corner...I want to be ready and not miss it because my focus was distracted from my funk!  

Yes, we all know this.  Yes, we read each other's encouragements and agree.  But really and truly when you are in a funk you don't want to hear it, and you especially don't want to work to press your way through it.  Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday and hope that it encourages you a little.  I have been having one of "those" weeks.  I wasn't "feeling" it.  I didn't want to read my Bible or be an ounce of spiritual (shocking, but I am actually just like you), I was in a terrible mood, and my children were happily pushing me over the edge.  All I wanted to do was take a nap before church.  And guess what.  That was the day my kids didn't want to lay down (which is unusual because Cadence loves her naps).  Literally on the verge of tears and rage at the same time, I sat on my bed and forced myself to get in the Word.  FORCED.  Because what else was I going to do- I couldn't sleep!  My flesh was pouting, and my soul (mind, will and emotions) didn't want to have anything to do with it.  But even through all of what I was feeling, my Spirit was fighting inside of me telling me to do it because I needed it and it works, no matter how I feel.  I knew that truth, so I trusted in it and not how I felt. So I read the Bible.  Didn't feel anything. I didn't want to go to church that night ( Does this sound familiar to anyone else out there??) but guess what- I'm the worship leader!  I don't get a choice!  Hate (actually love to) burst any bubbles out there, but again- just because I do what I do doesn't mean I'm not just like you.  So I get to practice, trying as hard as I can to get my heart right.  I am reading the words of what we're singing, and I begin to feel something rise up in me.  I set me heart and focus on going after Him with all I had. I am worshiping right there in practice, throwing my worthless flesh right into the presence of God and letting Him take over.  We sing the song, "I Lay Me Down", and it just couldn't have been more appropriate.  And I do what is being sung out of my own mouth to do. And let me tell you, by the time service started nobody would have ever known about the battle I fought leading up to that point because I had broken through and was so filled with Him I was about to burst!  The end of that song says after I lay me down, I lay it down, and I lift You up, that freedom is now the song of my heart.  And friends, last night that's exactly what happened.  I needed that so badly.

So, my point is this:  Want to break out of the funk?  Keep doing the right thing, over and over.  Make yourself.  What can I say except that it really works!  I know some of you don't believe me, and I wasn't believing myself earlier this week, but just try it and see what happens.  Read the Bible.  Pray.  Don't miss church.   I don't care what you feel at that moment.  Keep doing it.  There is too much Kingdom activity at stake here for you to give up now.  Too much on the horizon.  And even after that glorious time in the presence of God, it tried to come back on me last night when I got home.  I'm not there yet. But I'm going to keep on going and doing what I am supposed to do. No matter how I feel and what goes on around me. Will you join me?    

Risky Business

Okay...  God won't let me wait to write another blog!  But I still desire you all to share on here.   

On the intelligence scale, I fall in the average range.   My freshman year in college, I almost failed out.   I won’t get into the sob story of why, but the main reason was because no one taught me how to organize my time and study.   I remember my meeting with my counselor, who told me that “college was not for everyone,” and how I needed to take another path.   Because of the “fear of failure”, I came extremely close to following through with that counsel.   That time in life, my determination won over!  I began to learn how to organize and study.  My first report card as a sophomore was one B and the rest A’s.

(rabbit trail)  Mark and I laugh about my graduation day.   We were all sitting in a line waiting for our name to be called.  I believe that everyone on my row had magna, summa, or just plan cum laude before their name.   Then they came to just plan ole me, Ruth Lewis.  HA!  It really was funny. 

Have I always been this determined?   No Way! I have walked in the “fear of failure” in the past , more times than not.  

As a follower of Christ, I am called to a risky business.  God is teaching me to take “risks of faith”; to let go of the “fear of failure”.      When I do fail, I want to learn and be determined to do what it takes to succeed in what God asks of me.   It is time for me to stop “playing it safe”. 

(mono tone) All of us have heard about all the famous people who failed and failed before they became famous.  (Edison, Oprah etc.)

Like all the other “life lessons” that I have heard over and over, it must have a collision (impact) with my brain and heart before it gets my attention!   

Esther had to go before the King and risk her life in order to save her people.  

“Esther did what she needed to do, clearly the will of God, but not as one perfectly collected and confident.” (Beth Moore)

I love this statement!   I never feel perfectly collected and confident!   I believe that God doesn’t want me to because then I am fully depending on him to work through me.   

My job is to let it happen!

Ruth

The Blue "Funk"

Okay my friends,  I don't want this blog to become a "Ruth" blog.   I am writing this one, then waiting until some of you participate.    We all need to hear what God is doing with each other.

I can only imagine that Esther, after finding out the sentence that Haman handed out, must have been in a "funk".    She could either be refined or run.    

The Blue “Funk”

What is going on?  Lately, several of the people in my surroundings and even friends that live far away, have informed me that they are in the “funk”.  This has included me the last few weeks.   I looked up the word , Funk, in the dictionary:  bad mood, the lows, the dumps, the doldrums, the blue funk.  Honestly, I kind of like “the blue funk” part.  That sounds really bad?     So what does all this mean?  Well, here is my very intelligent and honest answer:

HECK IF I KNOW?

But......... I can tell you some of my thoughts the last few weeks.  

I have a choice:  I can be refined or I can run!     O yes, my flesh wants to run, but my spirit tells me that this is something that I need to walk through. 

All I know and know for sure, is that I have GOT to, GOT to, GOT to, seek God with all my heart.   My flesh is NOT tough enough to withstand alone.   

I Peter 1:6-7 - In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.   (7) These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Everyone knows the saying:  When the going gets tough..... the tough get going.

I don’t know about this......I am not very tough!   I am changing it for me:   When the going gets tough......  the tough get seeking!

Even though I try to seek God always, it really is more intense during “the funk”.     I told a friend of mine on the phone last night, that “the funk” is kind of fun.    I know that statement is really strange.   It is not fun going through it, but the fun part comes after walking through it.   Then I can look back and see how God is refining me, how my life view is changing, how I have gotten rid of some “junk” in my life, how I am treating my family and friends better....... and the list goes on.

I am going to face my funk head on!   I can’t wait to see what comes out of it!

Ruth

Remove and Replace

I wish things where different.   Why does it seem that nothing works out for me?   I try so hard, but nothing changes.   Why are some people so blessed with “things” and we have to struggles to make it?    I have desires and goals, but I just don’t have what it takes to carry them out.    I have always just been ordinary.    If I could just be thin and pretty.......... those women have it good.   I don’t have a life, I am just with my kids all day.  (In other words ...... I can’t do every selfish thing that I want to)

Okay!  I will stop before you think I have lost it!!   Truthfully,  this was the thinking that I had developed a couple of years back.   

Ephesians 4:22-24 - You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds: 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

This verse sounds to me like I have to take action, it’s not going to just happen.

Because of God’s awesome power to change, and His incredible love for me........ I am changing my attitude towards life.   No more attitude on what has been, but what could be!

Everyday I have to take negative thoughts captive, remove them purposely, and  replace them with truth.

I will become what I think.   

My surrounding haven’t changed much........  but my thinking is changing everyday.    Do I still struggle?  Absolutely!   Just yesterday, those old thoughts started to creep in, I immediately recognized the “yuck”,  refocused my eyes on God. (Who does everything in me and with me anyway)   In a few minutes, my mind (thinking) was renewed.  

I am so incredible blessed, not with “things”, but with family.  (Physical and spiritual family)    Our pastor teaches us to have the “get to”  not the “got to”.    I get to be me!  

There is no other me in the world.     You get to be you!   There is no other you in the world.    

What is on your mind?

Ruth

Ruth's ramblings on this weeks homework.

When Esther and a number of other women were taken from their homes and brought to the King’s home,  there must of been several emotions present among the women.   I have tried to imagine what went on.   The bible is not detailed, so I have been thinking according to my knowledge of women and my experience of being one, for 44 years now.

Here are my thoughts:   Most of the women probably started out with fear of the unknown.  Others my have been excited to be in the King’s home.    The women eventually became comfortable in their surroundings after all the pampering and attention.   Then the drama began!    As the beauty treatments when on day after day, they probably began to compare themselves to each other.   Who is the most beautiful?   Who has the prettiest skin?  Who has the prettiest clothes and jewelry?  and so on.   Now come on, let’s get real, it still goes on with women today!

This has caused me to examine my heart and my actions:    We as women compare ourselves to each other.    Our looks, our possessions, our jobs, our clothes, our jewelry , and the list goes on.       Okay, so we already know this, let’s take it to a deeper  thinking level.     Comparison can causes jealousy, resentment toward someone, and other negative emotions that can cloud the truth of the God’s word. (our map for life)     Why do you think that, even as Christian women, that we withdraw from each other,  we let “pettiness” hold us back from our purpose.   We allow petty thoughts to keep us from true friendships that last.

Esther was a woman of true character.   She didn’t play these games with the other women.   She actually had good manners.   She treated the others with respect. She didn’t put herself above them.   Her character is what brought her favor with Hegai and then the king.    “Gaining kindness is something she was doing, rather than something being done to her.”    She simply was kind to the others no matter how they acted.  "Not trying" to get to the top and be the "most popular" is the very thing that gained her favor.

This week I am checking my heart:   Do I have any bitterness or unforgivingness toward anyone?   Am I holding some petty thought in my heart towards someone, that is causing me to hold back?   Are my eyes on myself so much that I don’t see others? 

Lord change ME!   

Ruth

I Cor. 13

   

 God has to place his children and scatter us all over the world, in all areas, so we can make a difference.    ( rich, poor, middle class, home, work, “good side of town”, “bad side of town” etc. ) God has placed you where he needs you.