Funky Feelings...

I will admit it; yesterday I was in a funk.  I was slipping into a “hermit” mood that I get in every so often.  The, I just want to stay home, not talk to anyone but my best friend and my husband and sit and read a book, eat ice cream and not worry about social norms.  It was getting bad.  It was a rainy and stormy day, which contributed to my mood and I was contented to sit and be nasty.  Fortunately, we had a pre-arranged life group scheduled.  Usually our life group meets on Thursdays and not Wednesdays, but we were combining with 2 other life groups.  We were supposed to be meeting at a park.  It had been raining ALL day, a park just didn’t seem like a good idea.  At 4 something, we got the message that instead, we were just going to meet at the church due to the weather.  Feeling a little better about that, we dressed nicely, got in the car and headed out towards church.  2 minutes into our trip we got the call that the weather was “behind” us and we were going to go to the park after all. 

I was not a happy person.  If my parents’ hadn’t instilled in me the concept of commitments when I was younger, I would have just threw in the towel and called it a night.  We still had to get to Walmart and get salad dressing for one of the two salads that I had to make (really I volunteered to make, but by this time, my attitude was really not great!).  We turned the car around so we could grab junk clothes for the kids.  Ran in, grabbed them and headed towards the park with my obligatory stop at the store first.  We got there and I was not in a good mood.  Puddles were EVERYWHERE, my kids wanted to go run and jump in them and we didn’t want them to get dirty. 

I plastered on a very transparently fake smile and muddled through getting them changed, my food out and ready to eat and getting my kiddos food to eat.  While in line, one of the men who I had spoken to before and knew that I could speak Spanish, started talking to me in that language and my mood brightened a bit.  I love Spanish and very rarely have a chance to practice it and usually feel very intimidated, but he is a high school teacher, so he is used to terrible, butchered Spanish being spoken.  We sat down with them and two of the members of my life group and my funk was lifting.  That was until I had to take my child to the bathroom.

While coming out of the bathroom, I looked over to the large puddle to my right.  The “puddle” would be better described as a mini lake.  It was easily 50 yards in diameter and at least 2 feet deep in the middle and had the lovely color of poop.  Wading through said puddle was my youngest child and her best friend.  Taking a deep breath and attempting to remember what it was like to be a kid, I silently congratulated myself on bringing extra clothes for them and went to finish my food.  ALL the kids from both life groups soon joined them in the puddle and it ended up being a free-swimming hole that was the perfect size for all the kids.  Every child had to be stripped down before getting into the car that night!

After dinner, I was able to talk about my passion and future with a fantastic couple and then I saw it…  The sand volleyball court was filling up with players.  I was wearing jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt with one of those “hip skirts” under that extends your t-shirt to be longer.  Not dressed to play, I thought for about 2 seconds before excusing myself from the conversation and racing to the court.  Volleyball is my FAVORITE sport to play EVER!  I love it.  The sand was wet, sludgey and gross in some spots, but that didn’t matter.  I rolled up my jeans, threw off my shoes and joined in.  It was as if the minute my shoes came off, I took the funk off with them.  The funk was gone, I was in the zone and playing and had a BLAST!  Now, I am so glad that I went.  I could play volleyball at least 3 times a week. 

Sometimes we just don’t feel like doing things, it is easier to stay in our own depression and in our own “funk”.  Usually that funk then leads us deeper and deeper into depression and leads us into despair when really things aren’t as bad as they seem.  It is our own selfish desires to self-pity ourselves and not go out into the world.  “Woe is me…” BUT… when we experience life the way God intended us to, not alone but with friends and getting into the world, life gets better.  In Acts 27, Paul went to his friends for encouragement and uplifting.  Paul was imprisoned, he could have had a terrible attitude, but his attitude was almost always brightened by friends. 

Philippians 1: 3-11

    3I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,5in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.6For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.7For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.8For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.9And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,10so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.