Today my nearly one-year old lab was in the drainage pipe…in the creek…under our driveway, where he had trapped an unlucky duck. He was barking his fool head off inside the pipe-tunnel when I arrived on scene. He was making such a commotion, that for a moment I thought he was possibly stuck in the drainage pipe.
Don’t you know that I tend to make such a commotion during crisis moments that I begin to think I’m stuck? Just last week, I had a series of overwhelming moments, conversations, and decisions that had me in tears. After sobbing in the closet so my son didn’t hear me, I realized that my melt-down was an ugly crying ruckus. Today I realized it was comparable to the puppy panic of being trapped. The difference between the puppy’s commotion and mine, is that I am often stuck.
God knows we are flawed as humans and that we get stuck. The best news, we’re already given our escape plan to get unstuck. We simply need to share the concerns, the complaints, the commotion with Him. We won’t always get answers immediately. And we sometimes won’t like the answers. But there is reassurance in knowing that our God has ears that hear our every prayer…and that there is nothing more that He desires than to guide us through our ‘stuck-ness.’
Psalm 55:22 (ESV) tells us “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”
After my sob-fest-pity-party, I turned it over to God. I poured out the complaints, the injustices, the fears, the griping…and even the anger. I immediately felt better. Not because the overwhelming stuff was gone…no, it was all still there. But rather, I felt better because I spoke it out loud to the Lord.
This next week, I’m praying that you turn it all over to the Lord. Give him all the ugly truth and watch what He will do with it.
For the record, the puppy wasn’t stuck. The duck was trapped by the puppy’s excitement, but the duck was fine too. It was seriously just a loud commotion!
~Emily
Iron Porch 
First and foremost I want to give a huge thanks to Emily for being such a beautiful soul and mentor. I called her this past year during a pretty challenging transition that really put me back and I was “the dog, barking my fool head off” I was going through a storm I had never encountered and quite honestly not prepared for. I cried out to god but felt like he couldn’t hear me… every mountain was placed in front of me and every path i knew or coping/resilience strategy I had up my sleeve was defenseless. I cried a lot, frustrated, disrespected, lonely… every emotion just poured out of to the extent that I was unable to control any emotions I was having or any ill words that formed on my tongue. I reached out to Emily for advice and she reminded me god was there and even though I felt like he wasn’t hearing me, that he was but that he was trying to teach me something . My reflection on this whole experience was that my foundation with god was weak at best and what I thought was faith was like window shopping; you like what you see and could imagine how good you might look like with it on but you don’t want to pay the price they are asking for even though you have the money to. Had I invested in the foundation of truly knowing and understanding what gods love meant I probably wouldn’t of been barking as loudly as I was. I was leaning on my own understanding to fix the situation I was going through, yet had I had faith the size of a mustard seed my worries, fears, and anxieties would of rested at the feet of Jesus because I had faith, but I didn’t. So yes, we can all cry out to god but if we don’t have the foundation to begin believing that he is our Christ and savior…then there is no foundation for salvation and we will always be barking. My favorite scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6, Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path.” My path is VERY different from last year and I thank God for placing Emily in my path, directing me to call her and always providing me Grace through my storm.
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Jan, sweet lady, I am so very blessed to have you in my circle!!! Thank you for the kind words and the reminder that our foundation in Christ is so much more important than we often remember. I’m incredibly proud of you, your ability to have self-reflection, and your growth in your Christan walk…and I’m so happy to call you my Sister-in-Christ! Hugs, Emily
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