So, there was that time I was STUCK….It’s #FiveMinuteFriday and today’s word prompt is, you guessed it….STUCK!

Years and years ago, my mother, grandmother, youngest brother and first of My Three Sons and I took a trip to Florida. The Sweetheart was working and my inlaws owned a place in the Ocala area. Free vacay!

Everything was great, the weather, the place, the company, until we decided to go to the beach.

Now, in my defense, I have been to the ocean many, many times. As a young girl growing up, my family vacationed in St. Petersburg for many years and even if we weren’t in that city, the ocean was our destination of choice.

But…as an adult…the designated driver and sort of Leader-of-the-Pack, I had never driven to the beach.

Again, in my defense, everyone else was doing it. Parking their car in the sand on the beach. This was the early 80’s, maybe things were different then, maybe it was a secluded area, I can’t remember particulars. All I remember is that I was following The Crowd. Until I didn’t notice that The Crowd had all moved their vehicles OUT of the sand and onto the parking lot.

There was no notice. No text message. No Guy-in-Charge-of-the-Ocean that came around and said it was TIME.

Time for what you ask?

Tide. Not the kind you wash with or eat either. The kind that comes in every evening and causes the ocean to envelop everything in its path. If that happens to be a vehicle? Too bad.

I was kindly alerted to this impending disaster when a group of young people come running to me saying I needed to move that car and NOW. I jumped in the driver’s seat but it was already STUCK. It wasn’t that waves were lapping at the car but the sand was already wet and those tires were digging in fast.

Intent on saving the day and impressing all the teenage girls, this group of guys began to push and push until they had successfully gotten my new Buick out of the sand. Yes, I said NEW BUICK because it hadn’t been too long since I had totaled The Sweetheart’s beloved little truck, hit head on by a little old lady in a tank. (You can read that hilarious story here!) So, we had a nice new car that was about to be carried out to sea.

Have you ever been STUCK? So much so that it seemed as if all of life and the world around you was about to suck you in and drag you into oblivion? That might seem a little extreme and even a stretch for a spiritual analogy but it happens. Every single day.

We become STUCK in routines, STUCK in relationships, STUCK in financial hardships, STUCK in so-called friendships that are sucking the life right out of us.

Sometimes, we just need a push.

Jesus came to save, to deliver, to give us that PUSH that will help us become un-STUCK and encourage us to make the right decisions. To leave unhealthy relationships, to manage our finances better by putting Him first and to even help us to realize that our routines are time-wasters and show us a better way to manage that time!

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV

If STUCK describes you today, turn it over to jesus and let Him give you life abundant!