“Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them” – I Corinthians 7:20
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” – Philippians 4:11
One of the most interesting representations I have ever seen of learned helplessness, a theory in psychology, is a fish in a bowl with splashes of water on the counter. The fish, clearly feeling defeated after trying to get out of the bowl so many times, looks somber. There is no movement at all. In fact, it looks as though the fish doesn’t even want to swim in the space it is provided.
I must wonder what made the fish want to leave the bowl of water in the first place. Didn’t it know that it belongs in water? Did the fish not understand the danger if it managed to succeed and land on the counter? And why did the fish stop swimming altogether once it realized it had no way out of the bowl?
This seems simple until I realize how similar I am to this fish. Often, I imagine there is something better, bigger out there. My prideful, and often ungrateful mind can draw me to believe that something else would provide more happiness for me. A new job. A bigger place to live. A different church. Suddenly, where I am and what I have is not enough for me. Truthfully, it might feel better, at least temporarily. So, I struggle and seek a way out. I pray over and over for God to move me from the space. But nothing seems to work. And I wonder if God hears my plea, and why He doesn’t seem to be responding.
Then I must wonder what it is that I can’t see. Is there a reason that I am unable to find a way out? What does God want from me here and now? What possible danger might be waiting for me should I make it to the other side? Because sometimes we are not helpless but held by the hands of Christ.
When I believe I am stuck, I fail to move. I become still like the fish. When clearly, there is still room to swim. Lessons to be learned. Growth to happen. Character to be developed. Purpose to be fulfilled. So I will swim in this space until moved naturally into deeper waters.
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