What are you struggling with?

I think this is the question that doesn’t get asked enough — What are you struggling with? It gets asked in certain settings. It gets asked by therapists and doctors. I’ve heard variations of this question in other settings too — What are the financial obstacles that the organization is facing? The military is really good at this question — what is our opponent doing?

But I’m wondering — do we ask this question well in the church? In some places I think we do. And in some places I think we miss opportunities. There’s a variety of reasons for that of course. We can come up with a ton of excuses for why we don’t, but who cares about the excuses right?

I think the question is really important because of what it can lead to. Just asking the question of what are we struggling with opens us up to sharing a reality that we are 1. not ok. 2. not the savior. 3 need other people/help and 4. not the facade that we are putting up. There’s more of course. That’s just the simple version.

What are you struggling with is a hard question to deal with for a lot of folks. It’s about being vulnerable. And our culture isn’t oriented towards vulnerability. But our church is all about a message of being vulnerable. That’s a clash of values. What are people to do? That’s a struggle in and of itself.

What are you struggling with? Hmm. As a society we want easy and simple. Struggle implies something much more complex and perplexing. It implies ongoing. It implies something less concrete and more abstract…