Pushing Through Slumps

Life is full of ups and downs, good times and bad times, but when you actually find yourself in a slump, what do you do?

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Right now, you can say that I am in a slump:  I have no Sunday School students.  For a long time I had one faithful student and, as I continued to pray for the class to grow, the Lord let me teach five to six children almost every Sunday morning for a few months.  Then, as families moved on and circumstances changed, I found I was down to only one student and then none.

The thought crossed my mind to quit.  If I gave up my position, then I would be free to resume traveling with my husband as he evangelizes at other churches.  Wherever my husband goes, he is  asked “Where is that little wife of yours?" and a part of me wishes that I could be by his side supporting him in his endeavors. 

As I considered these things, I realized that what I was feeling was not so much a desire to do change roles in my service for God but instead a feeling of uselessness.  I am a Sunday school teacher without any students.  How easy it is to think that I am useless in my position.  After all I cannot do anything.  I am stuck siting in my pew looking back at the door every time I hear it open in the hopes that a new family is walking in.

Recognizing what I was truly experiencing, I began then to ask myself a series of questions to remind myself of why I should continue teaching Sunday School.

"When I go into a slump, I start looking for the cause for the slump instead of recognizing that many times it is not a slump at all but instead a waiting period."

Has God called me to teach Sunday School?  Yes.  Do I still want to teach Sunday School?  Yes.  Do I have a desire to help students grow spiritually?  Yes.  Am I still praying that God will send in more children to the church?  Yes.  Are the emotions I am experiencing justly caused by the lack of students and, when I get students, will these emotions go away?  Yes.  Why, then, should I quit?

Asking these questions allowed me to get my emotions into perspective and therefore realize the solution to my lack of zeal and joyful anticipation to the Sunday School hour is simply that I need to be patient because I am in a waiting period.  I find that when I begin to go into a slump, I start looking around for the terrible cause for the slump or try to figure out all the ways in which I need to improve myself to get out of the slump instead of recognizing that many times it is not a slump at all but instead a waiting period in which I have to trust in and wait on God for His timing.

Next time you feel yourself going into a slump about your service for the Lord, consider the following questions and see if they will not help you identify the true cause of the slump and therefore allow you to push through until you reach the mountain top again.

1. Did God call you to be in the position that you currently hold?
2. Has God changed that calling or giving you a new calling since you have taken the position?
3. Are there evidences that God supports you in your current position through the presence of fruit, encouragement, or other communications from the Spirit?
4. Is the negative emotion that you are feeling a result of your present circumstances?
5. Will these emotions go away if the circumstance returns to what it was previously?
6. Are these emotions the Holy Spirit getting your attention about something?

If you find that you have been called to your current position, God has not since called you into a different position, and that the negativity you are experiencing is derived from your own emotional state, then just keep pressing on, knowing with confident and assurance that God has called you, equipped you, and will walk beside you every step of the way through your tasks here on earth.  Don't give up when you're in a slump.  Instead, wait and see how God will turn things around.