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?
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