Sermon "Getting Unstuck"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, May 17, 1998
Acts 16:9-15
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Getting Unstuck
I remember a family trip we took when I was young. I can't recall where we were going but I sure remember an animated conversation between my mother and father. "We're lost," she said to my father. "Why don't you stop and ask someone for directions?" "Ah, we're not lost," he replied. "I know where we are."
Thirty minutes later, not quite as patient, my mom said, "There's a service station. Pull over and I'll go in and get directions." But dad drove right past it and several others.
I think we'd still be driving around that city if we hadn't come to an intersection. Before dad could protest, mom rolled down the window and asked this guy, who standing on the corner, for directions. Well, dad wasn't too happy about it but the rest of us were because we reached our destination in just a few minutes.
When you're lost, it's smart to stop and ask for guidance - before you run out of gas, or wear out the patience of your wife and family - and then you're really in trouble.
I seem to recall someone telling me that if Moses had stopped and asked for directions like Miriam had suggested, they would not have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years!
What about you? Ever get lost? Ever come to some four-way intersection in your life and you don't know which way to go? Maybe you're at one right now. Maybe you're facing some decision, some situation in which, as bad as you hate to admit it, you sure could use some direction. Or even worse, are you stuck or frozen and unable to get yourself to move?
Everyday of our lives we face decisions, great and small. Should I take that job offer? Should I strike out and try to realize some dream I've always had? Should I go to college? Or back to school? Which college? What major? What should I do about that problem at work or at home?
And lots of times we just try cruising around on our own, trying to find our own way, when what we really need to do - and we know this deep down - is stop and ask for direction. But who can you turn to? Where can you go for direction, for trustworthy guidance? How do you get unstuck?
I notice that the psychic friends hotline and its clones are booming lately. They have become multi-million dollar businesses. Is this the answer? It makes a difference where we stop and to whom we go to for guidance.
If I have learned anything from the Bible and from my own spiritual journey, it's that the God who made us is present always, every day in our lives - ready, willing and able to guide and direct us when we stop long enough to ask for direction. David knew this well. With great confidence he said that God, like a shepherd, "leads me in paths of righteousness" or "leads me in the right paths" (Psalm 23:3b).
The wise teacher in Proverbs gives some of the best advice we can ever receive. It should be written over your door, put on your refrigerator, in your car and posted everywhere you are. "In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths" (3:6). I like how the Good News Bible translates that: "Remember the Lord in everything you do, and God will show you the right way."
The wise teacher is telling us to live every part of our lives in relation to God. To trust God in all things. To look to God for guidance in every decision and situation. It's telling us to desire to know and do God's will in our lives. And when we do we get unstuck.
But how does this happen? How does God move and guide us when we are stuck? I have realized at least five options.
1. God guides us through prayer
If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask God. Talk with God about it. Pour out your concern, your confusion. God cares. God will listen. God will answer. It might not be in the way you expected, or when you expected, but God will answer. Look at the person you want to be. The spouse you want to be, the father you want to be, the worker you want to be, the Christian you want to be. Set the bar at your ideal and make that a lifetime pursuit and goal. Discuss it with God in prayer.
2. God guides us through other people
In a message a few weeks ago I discussed how god speaks through others. God has given me so much guidance through the wisdom and insight of caring persons in my life - trusted friends, teachers, pastors, counselors, family members - who know me and who know god - persons with spiritual maturity and insight. When you face a decision, ask yourself, "who is the one person I would most like to talk to about this?" It may well be that god is waiting to direct you through that person.
3. God guides us through our own interests and desires
When you face a decision, ask yourself, "what is it that I really want to do?" Asks "what would I do if I knew I could not fail?" Get in touch with your own feelings and desires.
I know at first this may sound self-centered. I don't think this is necessarily true. God, like a parent, doesn't ignore the wants and desires of god's children, anymore than we do of our own children. I love my children. I care about what they want for themselves. I cannot always agree with it or approve of it. But sometimes what they want is okay with me. In fact, it may be exactly what I want for them. I think this can be true in our relationship with god. As we grow spiritually, I think we get more in tune with the will and desires of god, so that we actually begin to desire and want for ourselves what god would desire for us. Because we are limited and quite often self-centered, this will not always be true. But sometimes what we want is what god wants for us. So do not ignore your own desires. Be honest about them. Share that with god. Perhaps your own desire may be the way god is guiding you.
4. God guides us through the Bible
The psalmist calls is "a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." The bible is a light for our path. When we come to a fork in the road, it can help show us which way to go. It's teachings instill within us the values and guidelines we need for living each day. I have faced no decision in my life that the bible did not throw some much needed light.
Perhaps one of the reasons we so often feel like we're stumbling around in the dark is that we have not turned on this light. When we study it, read it, make it a part of us, it is then there for us, like a light, when we need it.
I am constantly amazed in my own life and what others have shared with me about how the right words from scripture come to mind just when you need them. But that happens only when we have made those words a part of us. Whatever decision you face, ask, "what light does the bible casts on this?"
5. God guides us through the power of reason
One of the greatest gifts God give us is the mind. And God expects us to use it. When we face a decision, I think God expects us to look at it from every angle... Think through the consequences if we do this or that... List the advantages and disadvantages of every alternative... Gather all the information and facts we can... And then, through prayer, talking it over with a friend, getting in touch with our own desires, we make a decision based on the good sense God has given us.
However, we can pray, talk with others, get in touch with our own desires, and study the Bible, use the gift of reason, but this does not mean we will be given absolute certainty about what we should do in every situation and decision. You may still be stuck. This is what Paul and his traveling companions learned on their second missionary journey which we read about in the reading from Acts.
I have a feeling that Paul and his company spent a good deal of time in prayer, discussion, and planning before they left on that trip. But look what happened to them. Look at how God guided them.
"and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia"(Acts 16:6).
When Paul and his companions tried to enter Asia on their second missionary journey, they ran into a closed door. We are not told the precise obstacle to their work there, only that they saw it as divine guidance "...forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia."
Next they tried to enter Bithynia, "but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them." They ran right into another closed door. But they were still convinced that God was guiding them. Later that night, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonian. He pleaded with Paul to come and help them. So they went and met with great success - Lydia was converted, a slave girl was set free, a jailer and his family became Christians - and the church was established in Philippi (verses 14-34).
Sometimes God guides us like that. We cannot always wait for absolute assurance as to the precise will of God before we act. Often we must step out in faith, acting on what we believe to be God's will and trusting God to guide us. When we do this, God may guide us by closing doors. Blocked paths, frustrated plans, and wrong decisions will not discourage us if, like Paul, we see them as ways God can guide us to fruitful service.
You don't have to settle for being stuck. God is there to work with you and guide you. God will help you pull yourself out of that hole.
"God, so often we have run into closed doors and stood there for the longest time pounding on them. Give us wisdom to know when you have closed the door and faith to keep on walking until we find the one you have opened for us. May your spirit move us faithfully further in this incredible journey of living with and for you. Amen."
