Stagnant and Stuck

I spoke with a friend yesterday who mentioned her relationship and walk with Jesus feels stagnant. She kept using the words "stagnant" and "stuck". I know that place very well. I know that place often.

That is I know about stagnant places in relationships. There are moments of life when a couple can get so entrenched in life's day-to-day routine that the relationship itself becomes routine. The relationship becomes stagnant and stuck. What can you do in those moments?

When a relationship grows stagnant and stale it often only takes a relational moment of admitting and vocalizing that this relationship is stagnant. It takes one person in the relationship calling out the reality and exposing the honest picture of what is happening right now. Our tendency can be to get so entangled in the stagnant relationship that we let it go on and on. With each day we allow a stagnant relationship to continue, we die a bit. The relationship grows rigid and fragile.

But the moment Tonya says to me, "I feel like we're just roommates lately" or I vocalize, "Something isn't right; we're not connecting" the stagnation is exposed and we have to do something about it. There is honesty in this. There is intimacy in this.

The only way to repair a stagnant relationship is to make relational movements and changes.

When your relationship with Jesus feels and becomes stagnant, make a relational move and change. In prayer, expose and vocalize how stagnant it feels. In real (even vocal) words tell God you do not FEEL as though He is listening. You do not feel like you are connecting with Him.

We know God has not gone silent nor is He removed. We are usually the silent, distant ones, but we also know that our feelings are real. They are part of the relationship and our God relates and answers you in those spots.