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Funkiness! That’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw this palm tree. I’m not sure why it looks like that, though. Maybe it’s what’s left after a Cat 3 hurricane that came through town recently. Or, maybe its God’s sense of humor in creation. I’m just not sure. Here’s a different view of the same,

Call me crazy, but for some reason a hawaiian luau comes to mind.

Maybe I had never noticed that palm tree before but it surely sparked my mind about where I’ve been lately.

You may have wondered why I haven’t been posting lately (and if you haven’t…shame on you!). I’ve just been in a funky state of mind, blah, or in some sort of a lull. Call it what you want, down, blue, dragging, it all adds to the same.

Sometimes we ask people, “How’s it going?” And they sarcastically answer, “Oh… it’s another day in paradise.” What they really mean is, “Whatever, man. It is what it is.” Have you been my neighbor in Funky Town lately? If you have, the picture below best describes how you’ve felt.

Down!!!

For me (and maybe for you) it was probably a series of events that led to this: loss, we lost a beloved pet at our home recently; stress, a hurricane blew through our town recently; burnout, I just published my first book Hecklers In Your Crowd: Silencing The Voices That Hold You back and I’ve been walking through the valley of inevitable letdown; life. I’m sure you could add your own set of circumstances: dealing with discouraging people, mounting debt, illness, etc. Sometimes we feel like when it rains, it pours!

Here’s the thing, though, for every ‘Whatever, Man’ there has to be a ‘C’mon, Man!’ It’s time to come out funkiness and be insanely better.

An incredible Bible verse comes to mind to knock our funkiness out of commission,

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 4:10, MEV

Let’s do quick surgery on that passage:

The Greek word for ‘workmanship’ is actually from where we get our English word ‘poem’. You and me are an amazing work of art in God’s eyes!

‘Good works’ refers to action and accomplishment, in other words, purpose!

‘Prepared beforehand’ means that the Lord has made something ready for each of us to grab a hold of. It’s there. It’s available. All we have to do is get going and reach out for it.

When there’s a present with your name on it under the tree, don’t you want to grab it and rip it open? We should be the same way with whatever God made in advance for us to do. But how?

There are never easy answers. For me, it took my darling wife to simply ask me when I’m going to get back to blogging and seeing that funky palm tree. Somehow, someway, God made something click in me to jumpstart me.

If you feel like you’re not mentally there to be able to come out of your funkiness, PRAY! That may sound too simple and maybe even ‘cliche-ish’ but there’s serious power in prayer. If nothing else, when you pray you are placing yourself, life, gloominess, prospect of the present and future in the hands of a very able and powerful God who loves you.

He will stay by your side and at the proper time help lift you up.

Second, after you pray and when the door cracks a little open for you to squeeze through, give it a shot at getting going, force yourself into it.

The first step towards making the hyper-jump from funky to insanely good is the hardest one, but once you take it, the other ones follow in succession. I can’t explain how it all happens and it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden life will feel like its ecstatically better but, if moving forward is the goal, it will happen!

Time to get out of Funky Town…who’s with me?

Thanks for reading. Please leave me a comment if you’d like.