Weekly Reflections – The Funhouse

Let’s be honest, a “Funhouse” is an oxymoron, am I right?

I have been in a few funhouses in my day and every one of them has been pretty creepy. They tend to be haunted looking houses in a “carnival” like setting. Everything in them is designed to daze and confuse. They all have mirrors that make you see yourself as either super fat, skinny, wavy, and/or in multitude. The floors tend to be angled so you feel completely unbalanced as you walk drunkenly through a maze as one optical illusion after the other jumps out at you. The whole purpose is to knock you off your equilibrium and make you doubt yourself and reality.

Well…that, my friends, is the best way I can describe approaching a new stage of my life, starting back in 2015. Words like empty nester and midlife crisis come to mind. The “funhouse” of less responsibility and endless opportunities after early retirement and kids leaving home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was so hard to change old habits and to allow more margin back in my life. I desperately wanted to gravitate away from all the “to do’s” and incorporate deeper relationships in my life but I didn’t know where to start.

To add insult to injury, one big life event after the next kept knocking me off center. Through my desperation, thankfully, I clung to the wisdom of the Spirit and I dug into the scriptures like never before. I gobbled up God’s word and I began to see the light. The Spirit slowly began to show me areas of my life that were strongholds and gently opened my heart and mind toward a new growth-minded mentality. I now take comfort in the fact that I am continually being transformed and renewed every day of my life. I will never be done growing and I have found freedom in that fact. I am no longer fumbling through the funhouse and hiding behind my fears. Truth really does set you free but you must be open to hear it, brave enough to accept it, and humble enough to ask the Lord for direction.

Are you brave enough to seek God’s will and truth in your life?

The next time your emotions begin to boil over, ask God to show you what that it is about. What fear is your emotion covering up? What lie are you believing?

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Now, ask God what he sees when he looks at you. Can you let go of what you see and grab ahold of how God sees you?

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalms 25:5