echoes of redemption

Sometimes when we feel the most stuck, God is doing the most work in our lives.

The book of Hosea is an unbelievably deep metaphor for how God responds to his people and moves with them, redeeming them and growing them to be like him. So when it’s time for Gomer – the character that represents God’s people – to be brought back to God, we watch how he works.

It’s not a long monologue answering every question she has.

It’s not the answer to every pray she’s prayed.

It’s not every door opening up in her life so she could move forward without struggle.

God’s plan was completely backwards.

I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

- Hosea 2:14-15

So to move deeply in Gomer’s life, God takes her to the wilderness – where most people assume God does nothing. The one place that stands as a universal symbol in Scripture for being apart from God. Being lost. Hopeless.

God’s plan was to take her somewhere she would have nothing but him.

God’s plan was to give her places full of life and hope.

God’s plan was to turn her place of pain into an opportunity of hope.

So maybe the times we think we’re stuck in our faith, God is really doing the most. Moving the most. The closest to us.

Maybe the times we want to give up because we feel stuck are really opportunities to rely on something outside of ourselves and learn that through him we can live a life beyond what we ever imagined.

Maybe the only thing stuck in our lives is our insistence that we can do it on our own.

A recent study of American christians showed that 1 in 4 church attendees felt “stuck in their faith.”

Globally the idea of being stuck in faith is distinctly a western thought.

Historically it is almost exclusively an idea that has built up over the past 100 years, with the past 50 as the epicenter.

Not to say you wont find people struggling to hear from God throughout the world and history – that’s a different matter. The idea of being “stuck” is that a person’s faith is taking them nowhere. God isn’t revealing anything to them and they don’t feel like they are growing in any significant way.

Scripture doesn’t have much advice for people who are stuck simply because there is an underlying assumption that every follower of Jesus will be radically involved serving others.

When a person pours their life into other people – both inside and beyond the walls of your church – the concept of “stuck” isn’t quite as likely.

Helping a single mom you met a church pay her electric bill so she can also by groceries each month somehow moves a person forward in their faith.

Going without coffee for a month to send water to an organization to build a well in Africa somehow makes a person’s faith stronger.

Trying to live faith out in private gets people stuck.

Maybe what we have today that is both distinctly western and unique to the past 100 years of history is a rise of individualism. Faith is designed to be personal. Not private.

So the best way to get the 25% of American Christians un-stuck is to get them involved serving people. Engaging with the cry of the world.

I don’t want to take a complex problem and over simplify it, but the idea of “stuck” is about lacking motion. And in the path of Jesus, serving people is the movement of love.

So let’s stay un-stuck.

You’re hard pressed to find someone in our culture who will tell you silence is easy.

But it’s so essential to discovering who we are in Christ. Who we are in this world. Where we’re going. And where we’ve been.

The hard way to find silence is to force it.

Try and shut off the song in your head. Stop stressing about that thing at work. Forget the interaction with that person. Get yourself to stop wanting that thing you want. Shut the day off.

The best way to do silence is to stop judging yourself and listen to what’s going on in your head.

What song is stuck there? Do you embrace the values in it? Why? Is it beautiful? Are you thankful for that?

What’s going on at work? Have you brought it to God and just said, “I can’t…” What’s the next small step you need to take? How would the Bible say to live inside such a situation?

Why is that person stuck in your head? Do you need to apologize? Did you do something that showed them love? Do you need to pray for them?

Why do you want that thing? Is it materialism creeping in on you? If you do need it, what are you waiting for?

Shutting your day off doesn’t do you any favors – embrace it with the full force of your spirituality. Silence for the sake of silence is only the tip of the iceberg.

Embrace what’s going on in your heart. Don’t judge yourself for it. Listen. Celebrate. Repent. Repeat.