3 ways to stay faithful through a funk
Unfortunately, not the musical kind
There’s something exciting about the transition seasons.
Personally, I’ve always had a special preference for spring. It’s hard to describe the sense of hope and contentment I feel when the trees that have been barren and gray for so many months finally begin to show signs of life, those little green sprouts bringing a sense of warmth back into the world again.
In North Alabama, though, spring all too quickly gives way to sweltering summers—the kinds of days that make a walk to the mailbox overly taxing.
So the first hint of a crisp breeze; a forecast with highs below 90; an overpriced pumpkin-flavored coffee (that I’ll happily pay for every time); the sound of College Gameday on the television; these are signs of relief on the horizon.
But fall is also tinged with a bit of anxiety. As much as I enjoy cooler days, I know that we’ll soon have fewer hours of sunlight during which to enjoy them.
I adore the joy and celebration of the holiday season and will no doubt have my Christmas tree up well before Thanksgiving. But the holidays are also busy and rife with uncontrollable, unexpected emotional highs and lows.
While I still believe that the good outweighs the bad, it’s certainly a mixed bag, and those of us prone to worry know how easily our minds can capitalize on those anxieties, contaminating the season’s excitement with a sense of foreboding. It’s the perfect recipe for a funk.
The Law of Undulation
In May, I shared 5 takeaways from The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’ satirical work exploring the inner workings of a demon’s day job.
(I know, I know, another Lewis reference—but in my defense, I’ve been reading a lot of his work this year and, to be honest, he has an uncanny ability to pinpoint truth unlike many other authors I’ve read.)
In Chapter 8, Screwtape introduces Wormwood to the “Law of Undulation:”
“Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal,” he says. “As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”
Troughs, in Screwtape’s estimation, are defined by a perceived distance between the subject and God. In the next chapter, he gives Wormwood some tips for how to exploit that feeling.
“Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last, and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanent condition.”
If Wormwood can simply convince his patient that he is meant to feel positive all the time, he might just be able to get the man to give up on religion altogether.
Implicit here is the deeper truth: that it is completely normal, even expected, to experience every stage of undulation. Excitement and joy; peace and contentment; distance and dullness; depression and despair; all of these stages are universal experiences, and God is accessible in each.
What to do
1. Remember that these feelings are normal.
We’ve established that it’s impossible to feel on top of the world all the time. Life is busy and complicated, and sometimes just surviving is the priority. Thriving seems like a lofty goal when there are deadlines to meet, mouths to feed, events to attend, laundry to fold, and only 24 hours in a day.
But I guarantee that you’re not the only person feeling this way at any given time. In fact, I’d assume it’s more likely that someone you know and love is in the same boat as you.
So first, know that you’re not alone. Then, reach out to someone who cares for you. Your spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, an online acquaintance—community is a perfect antidote for the feelings of shame that a funk often brings along.
2. Lean into routines, habits, and disciplines.
We spent September digging into spiritual disciplines, spending a week each on prayer, scripture, and corporate worship.
As I mentioned in the introduction post, the Law of Undulation is exactly what makes these disciplines so important. It’s useful to pray when you’re fervently seeking the Lord’s will in some area of your life. It’s important to read the Bible when you’re insatiably curious about scripture. It’s necessary to worship with a local body of believers when you’re excited about the way God is moving in their lives.
But…it’s also essential to pray when you feel like your prayers aren’t being heard. It’s important to read scripture when the content is confusing and feels foreign to your life and experience. It’s imperative to attend worship services when you feel distant from other believers.
The power in these routines tends to make itself manifest in the most dramatic periods—the highest highs or the lowest lows. But most of life happens somewhere in between those periods. The real power in a habit, a ritual, a routine, a discipline, is nurtured by consistently committing to it regardless of the perceived benefits in the moment, trusting the Lord to meet you in your faithfulness and obedience.
3. Seek the beauty.
The experience of beauty is so fundamental to the human experience that there’s an entire branch of philosophy, called “Aesthetics,” dedicated to it.
In fact, beauty is so visceral that philosophers (most notably Richard Swinburne) have used it as the cornerstone for an argument for God’s existence, essentially claiming that the beauty of our world points to a Creator who made it that way.
How do you experience beauty? Is it in nature? Creating or consuming art? Spending time with loved ones?
If you don’t have an easy answer to that question, I’d encourage you to spend some time mulling it over. Then, come up with a plan that will help you commit to seeking it out when you need it the most. Find a scenic walking trail in your area; create a playlist filled with songs of hope and comfort; fill your camera roll with photos of people and places you love; read something by C.S. Lewis (😉); reach out to friends and family with words of encouragement.
We do not inhabit a perfect world, but I believe that we’re often allowed to get glimpses of perfection through experiences with beauty. Often, those experiences are the nudge we need to get out of a funk of dullness and anxiety, allowing us to “fix our eyes on things above” once more.
Now, LMK:
How do you move through a funk? Where do you see beauty in the world? Let’s talk about it in the comments.