How do you escape a “funk?”

Originally written January 28, 2919.

How do you escape from a “funk?”

Maybe that’s not the right word, but I’m guessing you can figure out what I’m talking about.

Sometimes we don’t know what got us in the state of mind we are in. We just know we don’t feel right.

Sometimes we know exactly what got us there, but, while someone once said, “knowing is half the battle,” it’s still only half.

I’ve been in about a three-week funk.

I know exactly what caused it, but I’ve had a heck of a time shaking it.

I know all the right things to say and I know the truth of the matter.

I can crawl out or be distracted for a day or two and then it creeps back in.

Have you ever been there?

I’m guessing you have.

Anyone who suggests that life is always smooth sailing as long as we love and follow Jesus proves that they don’t know the Bible—or Jesus—as well as they think they do.

We are not exempt from struggles, trials, confusion, and … funk.

We just don’t go through those without resources.

I’m writing to myself as much as to you today and hoping it helps us both.

I’m thinking of two tips this morning for dealing with “the funk.”

1. Feelings and behavior are related, but we will NEVER feel our way into right behavior. We can, however, behave our way toward right feeling.

Two different times in the past couple of weeks, I’ve experienced the endorphin boost of some vigorous exercise when I was at the point where all I wanted to do was curl up in a fetal position and eat something incredibly unhealthy.

The funk hit early Sunday morning, so I dressed differently for church. I figured that sometimes you need to wear a bright yellow down vest that advertises chocolate—and turquoise socks with pictures of s’mores on them—just to show the devil and any other joy suckers that they can’t win!

2. Prayer is conversation, not monologue. God doesn’t get upset with us when we unload on Him or when we just sit and pout.

He can handle it.

But we need to listen to what He says to us through the Bible (primarily), through our circumstances, through His people, and through what the Bible describes as His “still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12)

Proverbs 28:9 (The Message) says, “God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him.”

That means that our refusal to listen to God negates any effectiveness of our speaking to God.

I’m trying to do the right things and listen intently during my season of funkiness.

Neither God nor life is any less amazing when I’m not feeling it. I choose to be amazing today.

Question: How are you choosing what you can’t yet feel?

Be amazing today, my friend.