Slumps
From the Series—Summer Reflections
September 2, 2004This evotional concludes our Summer Reflections series.
Slumps
All of us have slumps—relational, emotional, spiritual. It’s part of life. There is an ebb and flow to life. There are ups and downs. I think sometimes we feel false guilt because we aren’t on a spiritual high all the time. But that isn’t reality.
I played basketball in high school and college and invariably, every season, I would go through a shooting slump. Every athlete knows that there are times when you’re “in the zone"-- it feels like you can’t miss. But when you’re in a shooting slump the ball looks bigger than the basket! All athletes go through slumps.
Relationships go through slumps—friends grow apart and marriages lose momentum. It is par for the course.
I’ve counseled enough dating couples to know that one evidence of a dating slump is over-analysis. A relationship becomes awkward and unnatural as a result. You second-guess everything! You start parsing the pronunciation and intonation.
You go out on a date and your boyfriend wears some junky jeans and you start analyzing. So does this mean that he doesn’t care about how he looks because he doesn’t care about me? Or does this mean that he feels so comfortable around me that he can just be himself without putting on airs? Chances are he’s just a junky dresser!
All of us go through slumps—in sports, in relationships, at work. Sometimes we’re “in the zone.” And sometimes we’re “in the dumps.” The same is true spiritually.
A few months ago I was in a spiritual slump. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t get down for too long. I have bad days like everybody else but I’m pretty buoyant. I tend to bounce back pretty quickly, but four months ago I hit bottom and I wasn’t bouncing.
To make a long story short, I felt called to 40 days of prayer and fasting. I started at 7:14 AM on 7/14. There is nothing special or sacred or spiritual about that date, but it was a reminder of the amazing promise in II Chronicles 7:14. What I want to do in this evotional is share some reflections from those forty days.
Goals
One of the things I’ve learned about myself during these forty days is that I need goals. It’s the way I’m wired. Here’s what I blogged on Day 5. “So much of spirituality is understanding personality—the way we’re wired. I need physical challenges—a goal, a race, a competition. I need to be training for something. In the same sense, I’m learning that I need spiritual challenges.”
During the forty days I decided to fast soda. I’m a coke addict so I said goodbye to two of my best friends—vanilla and cherry—for forty days.
I also set some prayer goals and reading goals. I felt impressed that even more important than God hearing my voice was me hearing God’s voice so I decided to read through the Old Testament. I ended up reading the entire Bible in those forty days. I felt like I need to go back to square one or ground zero.
One of the things I discovered is so simple it’s almost embarrassing to say because I think we all know it intuitively if we’ve been following Christ for any length of time. Your spiritual growth is contingent upon on a number of factors, but right at the top of the list is prayer—talking to God—and reading Scripture—listening to God. We never outgrow those two disciplines! If you aren’t talking and listening you aren’t growing.
Co-Dependent Christians
I recently read Mr. Jones Meet the Master, a compilation of sermons by Peter Marshall, the former Pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and Chaplain of the United States Senate. He asks a thought provoking question in one of the sermons.
“I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again?”
“There are aspects of the Gospel that are puzzling and difficult to understand. But our problems are not centered around the things we don’t understand, but rather in the things we do understand, the things we could not possibly misunderstand. Our problem is not so much that we don’t know what we should do. We know perfectly well, but we don’t want to do it.”
Here’s what I blogged on Day 16. I think it’s easy to create “co-dependent” Christians—they need their weekly fix. Church is something that is “done to us” rather than something we do. I’m concerned about that. I want us to help people “discover things for themselves.”
Corporate meetings (church) ought to be a vital part of the rhythm of our lives, but there is no substitute for you reading your Bible on a daily basis. Too many people depend on someone else for their spiritual sustenance. It’s like the Israelites in Exodus 20 who told Moses to seek God for them.
Deuteronomy 17:18-20 is a fascinating prescription. It was written long before Saul became the first king of Israel, but it contains guidelines for kings. “When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy these laws on a scroll for himself in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep a copy of the law with him and read it daily as long as he lives. This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud. It will prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way.”
There were three requirements for kings. They literally copied the entire Torah so it was written in their own handwriting. The king was required to keep it on his person at all times. And he was required to read it daily.
That daily reading was preventative medicine.
Leftovers
Exodus 16 is a microcosm on how God provides for our needs. God provides Manna and gives the Israelites interesting instructions.
“So the people of Israel went out and gathered this food—some getting more, and some getting less. By gathering two quarts for each person, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. Then Moses told them, ‘Do not keep any of it overnight’.”
In other words: no leftovers! My question is why? What’s wrong with someone showing some initiative and gathering enough to last a few days? Why did God disallow leftovers? Here’s my take on it. I think God wanted to give them a daily reminder of their daily dependence upon Him to provide for their daily needs.
We generally want a forty year supply today. But God tends to provide a daily dose. I wrote the initials JEJIT in the margin of my Bible next to this passage. God tends to provide “just enough just in time.” He seems to love close calls! It’s tough to come to any other conclusion after reading through Scripture.
Abraham with his knife raised and ready to sacrifice Isaac. God provides a ram in the thicket—JEJIT. The Israelites trapped between the Red Sea and Egyptian Army. God parts the water—JEJIT. The disciple’s boat nearly capsized during a hurricane. Jesus calms the storm—JEJIT. Thousands of hungry people in the middle of nowhere. Jesus feeds 5,000—JEJIT.
It’s almost like a game of chicken. I saw part of Footloose with Kevin Bacon a few weeks ago. One of the climaxes of the movie (there are so many) is the game of tractor chicken. Kevin Bacon wins because he gets his shoelace tangled around the accelerator. Sometimes we feel that way when we walk by faith.
It seems like God is playing chicken to see if we chicken out or trust him.
Total Dependence
Too often our goal is self-sufficiency. We even make the mistake of equating self-sufficiency with spiritual maturity, but they are polar opposites. On a human plane, dependency is bad and sufficiency is good. But it’s the opposite in God’s economy.
Stick with me. Anything that forces us to depend upon God is a good thing, but it’s usually “bad things” that force us to depend upon God so what I’m saying is that those “bad things” are really “good things.”
Paul begged God to take away his “thorn in the flesh” three times. But God said, “My power works best in your weakness.” That is so counterintuitive but it’s so true. Our weaknesses force us to depend on God more. And as we depend on God more and on ourselves less then God is able to do some pretty amazing things!
I’ve found that the less self-sufficient I feel the more I pray! Prayer is a form of dependence. The more you pray the more you realize how much you need to pray!
Depth Charge
Here is what I blogged on Day 4. “Prayer is a form of depth charging. A depth charge is an explosive that is dropped beneath the surface of the water and it causes things to float to the surface. In the same sense, prayer is a like a depth charge that causes emotions and thoughts to come to the surface! I’m more in touch with myself—my subconscious thoughts and repressed feelings—when I’m praying. It allows me to really examine my innermost motives and see who I am. When I’m not praying my life becomes so superficial.”
Prayer is the only difference between superficiality and intentionality.
By the way, if you throw a stick of dynamite into a lake I’ve heard it will knock the fish unconscious and they’ll all surface. I’m not sure if that’s true or an urban legend, but it’s a mental picture of prayer. Prayer makes things surface—for better or for worse!
Breathing
My friends and family know that I have this quirky habit on road trips—I love holding my breath to pass the time. On a recent trip I held my breath for 2 ½ miles! Of course, I think I topped ninety on the speedometer. I rarely go through a tunnel without holding my breath. I am easily amused!
Here’s what I’ve learned from those record-setting adventures. When you hold your breath you develop an oxygen debt and begin feeling the effects pretty quickly. You become light-headed. The human machine is designed in such a way that we need to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide or bad stuff happens. If the tunnel is long enough, you will eventually lose consciousness or lose life.
Most of us take air for granted because it’s all around us all the time. I think I’m an exception to the rule. I don’t take breathing for granted because I have asthma. Breathing is one of my favorite hobbies!
Here’s the bottom line: you never outgrow the need to breath! The same is true spiritually. If we don’t pray we lose consciousness and lose life. Prayer is the way we exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen.
Take a deep breath.