Discouragement has been knocking at my door lately. I am usually the one who can see the bright side of any situation but recently my heart has been feeling a bit cloudy. Don’t worry too much. I never let discouragement stop me from pursuing what God called me to do but I feel that I need to be honest when I am battling it. Here are some reasons I get discouraged.
- When things don’t work out. You could add, the way I planned, but when discouraged it’s hard to see it working out even the way you didn’t plan. It just feels like things didn’t work out period.
- When I don’t get the results I hoped for. Let’s be honest, we all have our ideas of what success looks like even if it is a flawed idea.
- When I fail at doing even the very simple things. There are some things that I am just supposed to be the best at. At least that’s how I feel. When I don’t perform to that standard I have set it feels like a complete failure.
- When I can’t fix what’s not working. This is that powerless feeling. It’s like with my computer. I still can’t watch videos on it. I’ve tried everything I know to do but still can’t get it to work. Now put that same frustration on to something that’s actually important and it makes you want to scream.
- Loneliness. When people don’t seem to get it like I do. This is many times just a perception problem but when you are dealing with discouragement everything is. I wish sometimes that I could take all the urgency that I feel and inject it into other people.
- The result that the above points have on the unknown future. The fact that it is unknown is bad enough but add all the things that feel like they are going wrong and it just intensifies the issue.
Here is the strange part. When I am feeling discouraged my first instinct is to force the opposite of what made me discouraged in the first place. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it is not. And sometimes it is really hard to know the difference. That is where I am right now.
As much as Philippians 4:11-13 as become a part of my DNA, I guess I am still learning what this really means. What are some things that discourage you and how do you battle them? I’m pretty sure that I am not the only one.
Jared White says:
I understand your post completely. The prophetic arts outreach group some friends and I have started has been challenging in terms of getting people’s “that sounds cool” translated into actual participation in the group. Our leadership feels a sense of urgency just like you describe, yet other people seem like it’s just another bullet point on their busy schedule (that might fall off the radar before long!). Our first impulse is to question us, or God, or the church, or something — anything!
I think discouragement is a fundamental misdiagnosis of one’s current condition. We think because we’re over here near Point A instead of moving fast towards Point B, then we’re failures. Or worse, if we’re moving to Point X way over there…what’s up with that?!?!
But God is outside of time, therefore, He doesn’t have to worry about the linear progression of events from past into present and on into the future. He’s more interested in our eternal nature. Every time I feel discouraged, I need to divorce myself from the boundaries of time and concentrate on the eternal relationship between my Lord and me. When we’re together and I’m at peace, hope springs forth anew.
Blessings on you today — and don’t be discouraged!
Jessa Stover says:
James, when life throws you lemons…make lemonade. Hahahaha! I love that one. Don’t be discouraged when we can’t make the rent and we are living Sunday to Sunday. Don’t be discouraged because the rental truck may not be able to be rented to get our equipment to church. Don’t be discouraged because the storage facility may no longer be an option. Don’t be discouraged because our core members don’t even show up half the time. It will all work out. I’m there for ya. I can remind you of plenty more things to be discouraged about. I’m just kidding. You know that God is just trying to keep your pride level at a managable state. We don’t want the return of the giant James head now do we?