Have you ever been in a funk? You know, like you don’t feel quite like yourself, your mind tends to not be as focused as much, and you feel like you aren’t making any ground in your endeavors. I’ve been in a funk. The past couple of weeks have been kinda sloggy when I sit down ready to move, my brain decides it doesn’t want to go as fast as my heart. It’s hard, especially being a writer and loving to do creative things, but it’s not just with being a writer. My spiritual walk has felt this way too. I sit down and ask God to speak, but I end up reading the words and not hearing. I ask if something is wrong with me, I wonder if I’ve upset God in some way, or focus on my past rather than trusting God in my future. I felt like I was doing something wrong, and I was beginning to feel depressed. Many of us have faced times like this in our lives. Asking if we are doing the right thing or if we are where we’re supposed to be. We need to step back. You are exactly where you are meant to be. I am exactly where I need to be. The enemy moves to steal, kill, and destroy. He doesn’t want the good things that God is doing in our lives to encourage us, he wants us dead. We need to break free.

In my state of this depressed mindset, I wanted to just quit. I can’t quit. We can’t quit. We’re superheroes, we have people that need us. Each week I have kids and students that I lead in small groups that need me to join them in the fight over their Monday’s. I have middle schoolers I work with in after-school care that need a strong male influence that the world doesn’t give anymore. I have people I work with that need me to join them as we prepare for the season ahead that God is ready to give. I need to fight, I need to break free of the grasp Satan has on me, and you do too. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” You see the enemy does this tactic every time. I have been talking about how God showed me a vision of a youth revival, and recently God has continued to reveal more of my future to me. I have been filled with joy. The enemy doesn’t like my joy. Our enemy comes to steal our joy, telling us we aren’t chosen; that we really aren’t that super. In that stealing of joy comes the murder. The enemy kills our spirit, the thing that drives us and makes us excited for more. After the kill comes destruction, we push others away and turn back towards our past mistakes. It’s a simple three step method for ultimate annihilation. We lay broken and beaten on the ground, in a pool of blood and dirt, feeling worthless.

Get up; rise.

It can be easy to lay there, helpless and filled with despair. God didn’t make us to live like that. In that same scripture describing the enemies plan, he says he came to give life. He made a way so that we could be whole again. When we place our hope back in Christ rather than do nothing, we get back on our feet. We can know that in the now the battle is hard, but we have a God that chose us. We have a God that made us to be exactly where we are, and through the words that inspired Batman we can remember that the reason we fall is to learn how to get back up. Will it hurt? Yeah. Will it seem difficult to get your mind back on joy? You better believe it. Will it be worth it? Absolutely. No matter what the enemy has thrown at you, there is hope. You can rise again and spit blood at the enemy, a couple bumps and bruises never hurt anyone that bad.

Shatter the chains; freedom.

Often, we can stand back up, yet not move because we still hold on to the chains locking us in place. The enemy isn’t sneaky, we know his plan. Steal, kill, destroy; repeat. We hold on to the things that are creating that cycle. A relationship, a website, a drug, a word, a drink, a thought; anything but Christ. We cling to these traps the enemy is ready to use, we need to let go, we need to shatter the chain. I like to think about the image of Luke Cage. In his first issue, his costume has a shattered chain as a belt to represent the fact that no man will hold him back. This relates to race, but I also think the same is true for all of us. We need to break the chains. Looking at the shattered chains by your feet as they lay there in the mud, where all our past mistakes deserve to be. You’re free now, you don’t have to wear them. They don’t deserve your attention. God didn’t make us to live under the chains of our past and our old ways, he made us in his image. He made us with a purpose, he made us to live in a relationship with him. Shatter the chains, and walk into freedom.

We have an opportunity now. We know the plan, we know the enemy, and we know our creator. We have it all in front of us. We can make a choice. It’s one that I had to make. You see the past couple of weeks I’ve been hard on myself. I’ve told myself I haven’t done enough. I haven’t made enough people happy. I haven’t written the best posts. I haven’t done what God wanted me to. The thing that I have had to realize is that, these are lies. These are whispers from the thief, the one who wants to steal my joy, kill my spirit, and destroy my future. I choose to break free. We all need to break free. We’re superheroes after all, people need us. You have people counting on you, they are in dire need of help just like you have been. I have people all around me that haven’t realized what I have. I have a savior that came to give life and life to the fullest.

Get up, fight, and shatter the chains. Break free and step into the child you were created to be.

-Joshua Thomas.