5 Things I Am Struggling With Right Now

I have goals and dreams. There are so many things I want to accomplish in this life. Every year I make goals for the coming year. This year was no different. I try to review them at least once per month to see what progress I am making. Some I am crushing, others I am making progress, and some I just cannot get any traction.

For my 5 Thursday Thoughts this week, I will share some of the things I am struggling with right now. At least three of these were on my list for this year. Two of them are not goals, but they are things that are frustrating me at the moment. I am sure you have those things too. Here are five of mine.

Eating

I am not struggling to eat. I am struggling to moderate my intake. One of my goals this year was to get to 220 lbs. I am pretty consistent exercising every day. I have tried some intermittent fasting. I just love good food. Even when I narrow my consumption time to 8 hours per day (intermittent fasting), I still eat more than I should. I think about it when I wake up, and it is one of the last things I think about before bed. I will get it figured out, but I am struggling to lower my food intake.

Screen Time

I use my phone for just about everything. I talk with people, and I send lots of emails and texts. I connect with people on social media, do sermon research, read, keep up with my favorite teams, keep records, read my Bible, and journal. This list could go on. I use my phone for many things, but I need to put it down more than I do. I am on it from early in the morning until late at night. It is on my goal list, but I have not made much progress. I am hoping the last few months of the year will be better.

Recording Videos

For about five years, I did at least three live videos per week. This year I wanted to make some changes to how I recorded and delivered them. What happened instead was I have just not been doing videos. I have not done the live videos as I was previously. I have not recorded and edited videos in a studio as I planned. I have allowed the lack of a new video setup to keep me from doing any videos. This will change soon.

Unanswerable Questions

As a pastor, people look to me for direction at times. Sometimes it is a spiritual direction, but many times it has nothing to do with the spiritual lives. It often centers around family, finances, and careers. With a worldwide pandemic, people added more questions to the list. Should I get vaccinated? Would Jesus wear a mask? Should I put my job at risk? Is it safe for me to come back to church? Is ___________ (the latest conspiracy theory) true? There are no clear answers to these questions. I am not even qualified to have an opinion about some of the questions being asked, much less have an answer. I want to help people.

I get it. The world is facing things to which there is no clear response. It is a massive change all at once. I do my best to guide when I can. At the moment, I feel a little overwhelmed. I want to help every single person in every situation. I just can’t do it.

Division Among Believers

I am not sure what is to blame. There are multiple facets to this. For some, it is race-related. For others, politics is the driving force. Currently, vaccinations are the divisive tool of choice. It is not just opinions, but complete fractures in people groups. Differences and divisiveness are not the same. There will always be differences; that we can expect. Divisiveness is dangerous and often demonic. One of the calls for believers is to find unity. When we are participating in the division of Christians, we are walking a dangerous tightrope.