From Stuck to Unstuck

Motionless – not moving; stationary.  This word motionless carries so much weight in the lives of so many people.  Being motionless is equivalent to being STUCK in a state that you can’t pull yourself out of.  Career – STUCK! Relationships – STUCK! Ministry – STUCK!

Life – STUCK!

It happens to us all. But, there is a special challenge today for the person who feels stuck.

The Cycle of Stuck

Acts chapter 3 speaks of a man whose state or position seemed to be more relevant than his name.  The approximately 40-year-old man was said to be “lame from his mother’s womb.”  His inability to walk made him of little use to himself or his family, needing to be carried around daily (Act 3:2). But, being “lame from his mother’s womb” – his state of being STUCK wasn’t his fault.

I wonder how many of us are fighting our way through things that we did not cause, but have the responsibility and mandate to handle it?  It was inherited. It fell in our laps. And now, many of us are faced with the challenge to break the cycle of an issue that festered from someone else before us.

This man’s familiarity was that of a lame mentality because that’s all he has known his entire life. Motion was foreign to him unless someone carried him.  He was STUCK in a LAME life.

Sidebar: Who’s Trapping Who?

It’s possible that the current state we struggle through causes us to slip into an aphotic disposition – i.e. trying to move in the absence a light, mental darkness.  In return, this disposition validates the idea of immobility.

Therefore, we resist doing something that our body wishes it had the capacity to do – I’m STUCK in my mind by the issue before me, and if my mind doesn’t tell me to move, then I can’t move.

The Perfect Name for that Stuck Feeling

Back in Acts 3… One day this “lame man” was laid by his family at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, during a time when people were entering to pray.  As he sat there doing the only thing he could do – asking for alms (money) from those who walked by – he met his challenge.  The scripture tells us that two of Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John, were walking by.  As they, too, were unable to supply him with what he wanted, they were able to give him what he needed – a challenge tied to a name (Acts 3:6):

“Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

You see, sometimes we are in the right place asking for the wrong thing – which often is the only thing we know how to do. Begging for money, when prayer was the focus of the hour is an example of how being stuck can mentally block you from making the best decision in a moment such as this.

It’s important to have people around you who are able to discern the moment and the need because your freedom will come with a challenge.  Peter and John were attentive to the needs of this man, not the temporal satisfaction he was asking for. And, most importantly, they knew the only name fit for the man’s stuck situation was Jesus Christ.

So, how do we become unstuck?  We accept the challenge to get up, in Jesus’ name!

So, What’s the Play Call?  

As we approach Christmas and the New Year consider this: You may or may not be the person who is stuck. You may be Peter or John in this season – the one who is passing by.  Whichever role you may play, it’s important that you recognize the responsibility you have in being either the challenger or the one accepting the challenge.  Peter and John challenged the lame man in Jesus’ name, and the lame man accepted the challenge.

Our daily decree is that we are open to and accepting of the challenge to be free – we are becoming Unstuck, in the name of Jesus!