Autopilot

have you ever got to a spot in your life where you are so emotionally drained that you feel like you are just going through the motions?

…or when you are so physically exhausted that you have trouble connecting your muscle-memory to your normal brain functions?

…or when you are so sick that your reasoning capabilities seem stunted and you can no longer think clearly?

…or you are so overwhelmed with the prospects of your current life situation that simple decisions become epic deal breakers?

…or fear of the future has such a stranglehold on your will that your freedom to choose wisely seems paralyzed?

…or failure has robbed your confidence and sucked the joy out of relationships?

…or anger and bitterness has blinded you to the awesomeness of grace and forgiveness and mercy and reconciliation?

…or your pursuit of comfort and situational happiness has overtaken the reality of your day-to-day and established unreasonable and unrealistic expectations for how your life is supposed to unfold?

…or your need for justice or fairness or even retaliation for the wrong done to you is causing you emotional grief and wrecking your ability to interact with people kindly?

…or poor decisions have left you tentative and reluctant to step out in faith?

…or you just want to quit?

what do you do?

do you have a spiritual reservoir that allows you to go on spiritual autopilot until your inner man can catch up to real time?

have you made enough deposits into the bank of your soul…so that you can make withdrawals to weather the storm you find yourself in?

when there is no will to open up the book and no words that can be prayed,  is there still enough to grab a hold of to pull you through?

this isn’t about crying a prayer of desperation when you find yourself empty and at the end of your rope.   this isn’t about letting go and letting god.   this isn’t simply calling down the power of god in some superhuman display of faith in the middle of your mess.

i suppose each of those are possible.   sometimes that’s all you’ve got.

but it doesn’t have to be that way.

in the day-to-day,  spiritual discipline is a lot like physical discipline.   you can put in some good work outs ahead of time,  anticipating a future stretch when you won’t be able to exercise.   the early work outs will sustain you and get you through,  until you can get back to the weight room.

it’s a crude analogy,  but it works for me.   during the times of our life when things are going well and difficulties are at a minimum,  we need to be spiritually bulking up.   developing spiritual muscle and endurance.   the apostle paul calls it being filled with the spirit.

filling ourselves with the wisdom of god’s truth…so that when come face to face with those times where the will is paralyzed and the spirit is completely drained,  we can go on spiritual autopilot…until the storm subsides and the clouds clear and light begins to shine again.

#autopilot #depression #difficulty #faith