finding Traction

Hi there.
Well it's getting pretty cold down here in Dunedin.
The snow did come, but not really to us on the hill.
It does look nice over the city.
Today I want to talk to you about finding traction.
Because lets face it, it's quite hard to get going when something stops.
It's not like your a computer or an app you simply open up and boom, you find traction again.
Being currently unemployed at the moment is quite hard.
Because you fall into a trap of nothingness, and sometimes it's easier not doing anything.
At the moment I am a tulip bulb in the deep dark earth, lying dormant.
And we will always have those dormant stages, it's knowing how to not cope not even get by, but how to see the changes and change with it.

What you thought has worked out hasn't for one reason or another, and you're left hanging.
It's hard not to get bitter, and it's hard to take '' one door closes, and another opens.'' type mentality.
You just don't know what sort of door that is.
So when the weather gets grey and it's hard to see black and white, what do you do?
Just sit and watch Pride and Prejudice and wait for Mr Darcy to pop off the screen and walk towards you?
It's important to have a plan, if not more now that ever.
Just get in touch with a friend, who has time to see you, and yes spend some time with them, and hey a cup of tea at a cafe is what $4?
So you can have that treat, and have a good catch up.
Then make a list, yes, my mum told me this, make a list of things to do the next day, even if you are interested in something and offering yourself for free, ring them up.
It will make you feel heaps better rather than just thinking of the ''should mentality''
Because I have done it, and  the ''should mentality'' doesn't do anything.
It only makes us complacent.
So what does the bible say about it?
It seems pretty common to go to the bible, but it does help find perspective.
I've been and have had mountain moments, and I've had valley moments, and I've had on the scale of 1 -10 how do you feel moments.
They don't really help let me tell you.
Because lets face it we aren't made to measure on scales.
We were when we were little kids, for the plunket nurse, but we're not kids anymore.
So getting back to my question, how do you find traction?
Lets go to the book of Timothy.
Because Paul saw what Timothy needed.
He needed traction, because there  was false teaching in the church.
Timothy also fought battles with sickness, and he was young, the youngest of anyone in the church.
So he had 3 battles on him.
Everyday we are called to read the bible and pray, pray for your situation, pray for your health, and read books about prayer and how to be effective.
It's not one way st.
You might not be in the habit, it might be for that car park, in that mall, it might just be getting through the day.
Paul saw this, and he wanted Timothy to know that there's more to life, than just church.
It' does feel like a lone battle at times, at time you might be left hanging,  and no one really cares.
They might want to, but don't know how to go about it.
Paul says to lift up our hands  our hands as holy hands, in prayer without anger or disputing.
That means just to be still and wait on God.
Sometimes we do that, and we lock him in, like a GPS until trusting him, where we should go, and what we should do with our lives, only to follow it, and lead us down the confusing path.
God isn't like GPS unit, in the old testament, we read that God changes his mind not only once but a lot of times.
The Israelites didn't change with the times, they got more embedded into their own sin.
God even said, ''if only if you were like a stork, or swallow that knows how to migrate.''
The problem was that they didn't know how to change.
So it's important to see how God moves in our lives, just to sit still and just to invite him in, in your situation, he's always got time for you.
See you weren't supposed to carry this beyond the cross.
It might feel like it's drowning you, you might feel like you can't see a way forward, but you can because you have the light of Christ in you.
Chloe