Stuck

So, have you ever been stuck?


I remember once when I was hunting with a friend of mine in eastern Montana. We had spent the day chasing the elusive white tail and decided to give it one more shot. We were in a nice big 4x4 and saw a muddy little road that looked like it led into a great place for deer to bed down. So down the road we went, sort of. We started down the road, which was narrow and had a creek on both sides of it, and the truck started to slip. We threw it into 4x4 and kept going, and the truck slipped even more. After about 5 minutes of this we hopped out of the truck and saw that the rear half of the truck was starting to slide down the embankment. At this point we finally got smart and hiked a couple of miles to the nearest farm house and found a wonderful farmer who pulled out his John Deere and came to the rescue. I have no doubt he was laughing at us most of the time as well.

So yes, I have been stuck, but that is not the kind of stuck I am thinking about today.

Today I am thinking about getting stuck in our minds.Getting stuck in the past. Getting stuck in what has happened and not being able to move into the future.

I have been there before too. Sometimes I live in my mind way too much and I get stuck.

So the question is, how do we get unstuck?

Going back to my initial story, sometimes we need that gracious farmer to come and give us hand. A person who has a different perspective, who has worked that land before and knows some tricks to help get us unstuck. These people are wonderfully helpful in getting us unstuck.

Another thing that I do is get out and do something totally different, put myself in a different place with a different focus. Then when I come back to where I am I have a new view of things and that helps as well.

And, of course, there is the calling out to God for help. With my times of prayer and devotions, when I am stuck, I often am asking for guidance and support. I am asking for my eyes to be opened to a way to get unstuck in life.

So how about you? What do you do to get unstuck?