Getting Unstuck

I went through an interesting exercise today that is worth a larger time investment, but thought I would share the framework of it here anyway, even though it's in draft form.

It comes out of thinking about how we get unstuck, or out of a rut, if you will.  When we get stale, bored, uninspired, discouraged, tired, etc., how do we break free of it?  Continuing the same exact pattern or routine will most certainly lead to the same result, so some kind of change in behavior or attitude or thinking is required.

Instead of just brainstorming my own ideas, I thought I'd look to the Bible.  What I discovered is pretty exciting to me.  I shared this with our staff team during our devotional time today and some of our team members made additional contributions which are also included here.

Person        Cause of being stuck                    What they did / God did to get them unstuck
Noah          Discouragement with corruption   Construction project and a boat ride
Elijah          Success                                        Rest and retreat
Jacob         Fear                                             Wrestles with God all night
Moses        Physical deficiency                        Throws down his staff
Peter          Spiritual Failure                             Gathers w/friends & preaches his heart out
David         Moral failure                                 Fasts and Prays
Joseph       Injustice                                        Frees his mind to dream dreams
Joshua       Impossible circumstances              charges ahead anyway
Josiah        Spiritual deprivation                       Reads the Bible and re-commitment to God
Paul           In Jail                                            Sang
Jonah         stuck in a fish                                 submission to God
Israelites    stuck in the desert                           die  (ok, this one's a little hard to recommend)

I bet there are some cool exercises in here.  Food for thought.