STUCK IN THE HALLWAY
Ideas from a sermon about being stuck in the hallway of life.
People get mentally stuck in hallways because only 5% of our emotional decision-making occurs in our conscious level of thinking, while 95% of our actions happen at the subconscious processing level. We get stuck, not knowing how we got there. Hallways are temporary, designed to get you from one room to the other. They are not places to reside for extended periods.
Hallways are excellent metaphors for daily life. Everyone ends up in a hallway at some point while looking to find a new and better place. But it can be very not comforting to open a new door. There are times when it might feel easier to go back through the same door. Others wait in the hallway, afraid to try the new door or go back through the old one.
When we get stuck in a hallway, it is impossible to experience the grace and beauty of life. No longer do the words of Jesus, “I have come that you may have life abundantly make any sense.” Getting stuck in the hallways of life is what hell on earth looks like, and in reality, it is a living hell. Hallway living is not a good place to be and not the place to feel the abundance of life.
The sermon titled Hell In The Hallway is a brutally graphic description of the negatives that come from being stuck in a hallway through the imaginations of our minds.
Reflect on my notes from the sermon:
No one intentionally chooses to get stuck in the hell in the hallway with no room to enter.
“Who is the you that you are not?” is a conscious-living and thought-provoking gem. It is hardly possible to know who you are if you can’t figure who you are not.
Take 10 minutes to list all the ways you are not, and then list the ways you are. Getting out of the hallway begins with an existential diagnosis about the hallway and yourself. Is it a hallway of depression, resentment, anger, self-pity, blame, arrogance, pride, jealousy, envy, or…
This conscious recognition of hallway living is the crucial first step. There is no way to get out of hallway hell living until this first step takes place. The second step is knowing who you are and who you are not. Both are vital; you cannot know who you are without first understanding who you are not.
Does this open your conscious mind to ways you may be living a portion of your life in a hallway?
