“You have to stop thinking that you will be stuck in your current situation forever. We feel like our hearts will never heal, or we'll never get out of this impossible struggle. Don’t confuse a season, for a lifetime. Even your trials have an expiration date. You will grow, life will change, things will work out” – BRITTNEY MOSES.

Life! Life as it is said is not a bowl of cherries. It is most often characterised by unexpected ups and downs. There is a silent negotiation going on in our head and an unseen malady crippling the world. Universally, the numbers of people struggling with living an average lifestyle are on the increase. For some, life feels like confinement and for some life feels like being stuck in the mud. Life’s pressures, demands and oppressions are reinventing slavery all over again. Inner struggles and indignity have become our captors. 

Life is not an all way pleasant or unpleasant experience; it has its dark as well as its happy moments. Funny enough, each of these moments is not a respecter of persons. The pain that life metes out on one can also serve another and the pleasantness it dishes out to one, can also present another. In the dictionary of life, there is neither poor nor rich; life does not relate to people based on their background, race, educational qualification or social status. The same opportunity it presents to one, it also makes available to all; it has no favourites.  Yes! Life has no favourites, and it does not relate to people based on what they have or do not have. This is why the rich also get sick as much as the poor do, this is why the rich face challenges of all sorts as much as the poor do, this is why the rich experience depression as much as the poor do and this is also, why the rich, as well as the poor, would at some point all die.

More often than not, it is people's lack of understanding of this truth that gets them stuck in life. That is why you see a situation where someone was struck by an unexpected tragedy and even after many years that the person has gone through that ugly experience, he never comes back to normal. This is because the person has allowed himself to believe that life is so unfair to him that it has singled him out from the rest of the world just to torment him. But what such a person does not know is that life has no favourites. Somebody somewhere might be going through a bigger and tougher challenge but because the person seems to have learnt how to maintain calmness in the face of difficult situations, the other fellow erroneously thinks he is the only one in pain.

A time comes in every man’s life when he feels so stuck; you know that moment when it seems as though when you take one step forward, something pulls you many steps backwards. You feel as if you are in a deep mud trying to get out, but the more you attempt to get out, the more, slippery and deeper down it gets. It is at those moments when you put so much effort into doing something only to record little or no result. It is that moment when nothing seems to be working, and it's as though every road you turn to has a gate waiting only to slam against you. I agree with Captain Burrel Parmer when he said, “They got stuck in the mud, then they radioed they need help, they can’t get out, they’re sinking in the mud.” When you look at other people, it seems everyone is making progress except you then you begin to wonder what Providence has against you and why you deserve such ill-treatment. Nevertheless, the truth is this, what you are going through is not different or worse than what most other people are going through. Life is not being unfair to you after all because it has no favourites. Ralph Marston said, “Life does not owe you anything because life has already given you everything.” What life has meted out to you, it did to others. Just because your case is different and you are stuck does not mean you have failed in life. As a human being in the course of your sojourn in this world, you will sometimes get to a point where you feel confused and stuck due to life's many challenges. At this point, what you need is not a pity party or a blame game. Rather, what you need is a strategic approach on how to overcome your hiccups so you can become completely unstuck. 

Remember the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda as recorded in John chapter 5. The Bible states that a large number of sick people: the blind, lame, including the paralysed were all stuck by the pool waiting for the stirring of the water. As recorded, an angel would come to the pool at a certain season to stir up the water and whoever got into the pool first got healed. Note that it was not that the angel came every day, because “season” is not an everyday event. And a certain man in that scripture had been stuck in that mess for thirty-eight years. The man was stuck in the mud with no one to help him according to him. You would have thought when he met Jesus’ question “Would you be made whole?” That he would have responded immediately with an assertive “Yes, Master!”. Rather, the man decided to tell Jesus about what should have, would have and could have happened. The man was indeed beyond being stuck and stale. Yet, he kept giving excuses that he has been giving for the past thirty-eight years of being stuck! Like this man, the pool may appear like a prison, a place in your life where you are stagnant, stuck and depressed. Nevertheless, miracles can still happen and things can turn around for your good, however, your effort is required. “Without aspirations for a better existence, you’re stuck in the mud and going nowhere” (Kimora Lee Simmons). A Cambodian Proverb remarks, “The elephant that is stuck in the mud will tear down the tree with it.” Thankfully, when the man encountered Jesus, he got his miracle, his story changed and he became unstuck.

You see, there are many reasons why people often are stuck in life. For some, they are stuck on a job they have no passion for, others feel stuck in their parental duty that no matter how much effort they put into building their home or raising their kids properly, it still appears as though they are not doing it right. While others, they are housebound due to one illness or the other. Whether you are stuck on your job, relationship, business, career, parental duty, or housebound etc. you can be assured that there is a way out for you. Being stuck in most cases could be a sign that it is time for you to move away from the old to something new and more meaningful. The problem, however, is that most times, when people find themselves being stuck, rather than accept the fact that it is time for them to move, they choose instead to keep holding on to the old and refusing to let go. For such people, they live in constant denial of their current reality.

The next time you find yourself unable to move forward in life be determined to get out of the rut; don’t just sit there without hope. Dieter F. Uchdford says, “When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer – no matter how eloquent the oration.” Be prepared to get out from the mess you are in by every legitimate means possible and God will help you scale through. Positive affirmation works magic. You can speak yourself into a solution just as you can speak yourself into more problems. Always be careful what you say when you are faced with a challenge. Words are powerful; So use your words properly. If you say you will be stuck for the rest of your life then you will be, and if you say otherwise so shall it also be unto you.

Above all, in trying to get unstuck, some level of effort is required of you. You cannot fold your arms or sit at a place recounting how life has treated you unfairly and expect to achieve anything worthwhile in life. Be determined to get unstuck from that stagnant situation from today!