2 Reasons You Are STAYING Stuck

Every leader, every parent, every student, every grandparent, every pastor… ok… EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. experiences the frustration and pain of feeling stuck. 

Two years ago, while my buddy Todd and I were off the grid on a pheasant hunt, we got stuck. I’ll never forget those two hours of spinning our tires. My hunting dog Jack was not happy. He could barely watch. We couldn’t move and we didn’t move. We STAYED stuck. 

Two weeks ago, I spoke about Moses and his many moments of “stuck-ness”. The portion of his story we zoomed in on was from Exodus 18, when ole Mo was spinning his tires.

Check this out. 

“When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said,
“What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge,
while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
-Exodus 18:14

Getting stuck is one thing.  Staying stuck is something else altogether. We all get stuck. That’s part of life. But staying stuck? That doesn’t have to be part of life. 

 Moses was alone.  He was isolated and as long as he CHOSE to be alone, the longer he would stay stuck. 

[Spoiler alert - Moses didn’t stay stuck - because he humbled himself, listened to his Father In Law’s wise counsel, and embraced the power of community.]

I want to share with you 2 reasons ALONENESS causes us to stay stuck. 

1. When we’re going at it alone, we only have our resources.
   Moses had tremendous capacity. He was called by God to lead the people of God, but Moses needed more than what Moses could bring to the table. Moses needed to borrow the energy and leadership of others. If you’re staying stuck maybe it’s because you are running on empty.
   
   In one of my favorite books on leadership, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro writes:
   
   “We don’t forget that we are Christians. We forget that we are human, and that one oversight alone can debilitate the potential of our future.” -Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty
   
   Some of you need to read that again. Go ahead.  I’ll wait. 
   
   Pastor Wayne goes on to explain the power of knowing your 5%. He explains how 85% of what we do can be done by anyone and this is where we spend most of our time. Not only that, 10% can be done by someone who receives adequate training. Here’s the kicker, 5% can only be done by you/me and that is the most important 5% we need to focus our energy on. The book encourages you to then list out 5-6 things that make up your 5%.
   
   Some of you are stuck - NOT because you’re focused on the 5%, it’s because you’re doing 100% of what you CANNOT do 100% of. You need the resources of others.
   

2. When we’re going at it alone, we only have our perspective.

   When we are stuck and staying stuck, one of the main reasons is because we can’t see our way through the challenge at hand. We don’t know what to do, what to say or where to go. We stay stuck because we stick with only our perspective. I am amazed at how often a “third road” appears when another person shares their perspective on a situation with me.  They see things I didn’t, and it changes everything.

One of my favorite Proverbs from the Bible reads:

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed.”
-Proverbs 15:22

Some of you think you just need passion or perseverance.  Yes, those two qualities are important but there are times those two things will fall short. In those moments, in those situations, you need the perspective of another advisor.

For Moses, in Exodus 18, this new perspective came through Jethro. It ended up changing everything, including Moses.

Alone is an excellent TV show, but a terrible strategy for getting unstuck. I hope and pray this encourages you to invite your Jethro’s to the table. Getting unstuck is one of the best feelings of all time. Thankfully, Todd and I finally experienced that. As you can see in the picture, my dog Jack was most thrilled. 

Much love, 

 Jon