What To Do If You're in (Temporary) Funk-Land

So February has occasionally been a hard time of year for me. I feel restless, have a hard time sleeping sometimes, get lethargic, slip into a mild funk. Some years it's been really hard. Other years, it's been barely a blip. This year, it's somewhere in-between. It's seldom lasted longer than a couple weeks.

A couple of things that I try to do that might be helpful for others.

First, I try to be more disciplined about sleep, decent eating, popping extra vitamin C to keep sickness from adding further complication to an already off-kilter body and soul.

But of course the bigger issue (and this is way more pronounced who have ongoing battles with depression and/or other emotional issues) is what do I do with God in all of this? Where is he? How can I connect when I feel so sluggish and un-motivated?

For those of us with shorter-term challenges like this, I would suggest that there's an invitation to meet Christ in the midst of our brokenness that we should not miss.

I just don't have my "A-Game" right now. Yesterday I got in a really stupid argument with a student. I got irrationally angry at a person blocking the steps for people who were going down the stairs while I passed them going up the stairs. Dumb stuff.

This reminds me that grace and mercy are the most real things in the universe. When I can't perform at my best, I am reminded that regardless of my performance, feelings or competencies, God's grace and mercy are sufficient. My abilities and moods will ebb and flow, the grace of God is the thing that remains constant.

I am reminded that it's in my weakness that Christ is most glorified. I am a "cracked pot" so that God's grace and mercy might shine through those cracks in ways that are uniquely powerful. I need Jesus right now in a way that is more palpable, humbling, and holy than at other times of the year.

Of course I want to qualify all of this by saying that this is my situation and emphatically add that it's temporary. For those of you with longer-term battles, getting professional help and sometimes medications will be the most important step towards help.

And even others with short-term battles have them more severely than I do. Again, I'd encourage you to get help.

But for me, these couple weeks in February is a time when I am tempted to lose "True North" for a little while. And so it's a unique couple of weeks where I am reminded of my need for a savior who is much stronger and greater than I. And in that knowledge, there is grace.

Just don't let me see you blocking anyone's passage up or down those stairs,that just might send me over the edge...