WHEN YOU’RE STUCK IN A RUT

Our staff meeting today started with us talking about being stuck.  We talked about how we can all get personally stuck in some stuff that we can’t seem to break free of.   We talked briefly about what do you do when you’re stuck in a rut and prayed about some stuckness in our church and lives.

I once heard this quote about a “rut” in a leadership class I was taking.  It reads:

“A rut ain’t nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.”  

So in decided to write some thoughts in agreement that ruts are deadly to my spiritual growth, to my ministry, and to potential.  I’m no rut busting pro, but as I mulled this over today, there’s  things I think I need to bust out of any rut.  This is what I need to remind myself, my students, and my team that we have to do if we’re gonna get out of the ruts we’re trapped in- both individually and collectively.

#1. CALL IT OUT—–>>  I have to call out a rut for a rut. And not just a rut of bad patterns, but a death trap i’m stuck in.  Everyone who’s ever been through a 12 step program out of anything knows this is always step one.  If you can’t name it, you can’t defeat it.

#2. PRAY IT THROUGH —–>>  I can’t just click my heals and wish a rut away.  It’s a rut for a reason.  I’m gonna need some divine guidance, strength, wisdom, and intervention.  I’m gonna also need way more than just one days worth, I’m gonna need a lot of prayer and probably a lot of time.

#3. TELL SOMEONE —–>> Do I have to?  Yup.  If calling it out is giving it a label, then telling a friend is giving it a flag.  It says, “hey, I hate this rut” and I need some help and some accountability to get out.  If I want to get out of any deep seated pattern in life, it takes accountability. It just does.

#4. ASK FOR INPUT —–>> I’m not gonna find a new perspective in me.  I need outside influence and ideas.  I need others to help me de-stuck stuff.  By definition, if I could have unstuck it myself, I wouldn’t be stuck here in the first place.

#5. REPLACE STUCK STUFF WITH NEW STUFF —–>>  Old patterns don’t just go away, they must be replaced with new patterns.  If you want to stop “x”, then it must be replaced with “y”, whatever that is. So busyness can be replaced with solitude.  Anger can be replaced with exercise.  Alcohol can be replaced with…. anything but nothing.  When something that has had a strong hold on us is to be broken free of, we can’t just break free into nothingness or it’ll grab us again. We must turn that attention somewhere else.