Ever felt lost for words?

Ever felt lost for words?

May be because your mind has gone blank? Or you feel overwhelmed with emotion? Perhaps due to being astounded by something? It could be due to a big shock or sad news or something that has brought great joy or pleasant surprise.

As I sit to write this, I feel somewhat lost for words simply because there are so many things that I could write about.

I woke up very early, partly due to a heavy cold but also due to a number of things going around my head.

So here right now, what to write about?

Should I write something relating to the fact that this coming Sunday in ICL, we have our Celebrate morning – an opportunity to look back over 2015 but also look ahead together? It is going to be good to gather, reflect and cast our outlook forward.

Do I pick up on God being our shepherd from Psalm 23, which I spoke about at ICL last Sunday? That for instance His “goodness and love shall follow us all of our days” (23:5) – even in the tough times?

Should I write more about mental health issues? Last Sunday I also touched on this subject briefly, as an example of the kind of tough times that many can find themselves walking through. Often it is never spoken about. Why is there such silence? How can the Christian community be a safe place, a place of support and understanding as well as healing and wholeness from the Lord (whatever time frame and form that may mean)?

Over lunch, I was watching the news and seeing the clearance of many temporary shelters at “The Jungle” in Calais, as well as 1000s again lined up on Greece’s borders desperate to get into the EU. Do I take this space to comment on that? Yet if so, where to begin? I cannot claim any expertise on the huge challenges facing governments, NGOs and charities alike. Though I believe that amidst all the political questions, people in dire need cannot be ignored and the church of Christ needs to be involved where we can be.

Turning off the news, I then took a look at the latest Stop the Traffik e-newsletter with various updates concerning the appalling realities of human trafficking.

All of these things and more leave me somewhat lost for words.

May be that is not a bad thing when it happens to any of us.

When there are a multiplicity of things on our minds or in our lives, what do we do when we feel lost for words?

• We can respond by seeking to simply shrug our shoulders and ignore it all and plunge on with life. OR…
• We can respond by frantically trying to react to it all!

I don’t think either is a healthy option. Instead I suggest that we respond by doing something like the following…

STOP… it may not be possible immediately but when you can find some space to reflect on all that is happening in your circumstances or going round your head. Write it down if that helps.

PRAY… focus afresh on who the Lord is and His faithfulness. Come with gratitude but also bring to Him all of the things that are leaving you lost for words.

LISTEN… take time to be still – as the Psalmist wrote on Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God”

DISCERN… ask for a sense of what is for you to pray about, what is for you to pray about and act on and what is actually not something you should be picking up on that this time.

So I hope the above was something good to right about, having been lost for words!

More than that, I think I better sign off and seek to put into practice what I have just suggested! Otherwise it will be words that are lost, making no difference in my life!

Thanks for reading

Andy