Showing posts with label guidance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guidance. Show all posts

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Whatever, I'm Tired of Feeling

I try to be positive and to hide my pain, but in truth, I'm hurting. I've been hurting for a long time now, and in a certain way, I feel sort of numb. I don't feel good, but I try not to feel bad, so I just feel... whatever.

I'm not at all where I'd hoped to be at this stage of my life. I'm trying to get where I want to be—to get back on course—but just so much seems to be so wrong or so complicated. I don't even know where to begin, or if I even should. It just seems like for every step I take forward, I take two giant steps back.

Several of my hopes and dreams have went to the wayside. I don't have any hope for a family of my own anymore. That hope and that dream is practically gone completely. Being a realist, I just don't think it's a very realistic thing to expect anymore. It seems far too unlikely. Instead, I find myself wanting a boyfriend, and knowing I can't have one, and realizing that even if I did have one, I probably still wouldn't feel any better than I currently do. And it doesn't help me any to face the very real prospect that I may be alone the rest of my life.

I've been struggling with lust and pornography. It's like I can't see enough; like there's a longing within me that I just can't satisfy. And I know this has been brought on in large part due to my work environment. I can't escape seeing at least two or three good looking, near naked, guys each day. It's sort of inevitable. I see them and that longing builds within me. I look away but the feeling remains. I try to turn to Jesus but I feel ashamed, or guilty or whatever, and then I just feel lonely.

I've come to the conclusion I don't really want to be straight anymore. I don't want to be anything for that matter. If I could have things my way I wouldn't be attracted to anyone or have any feelings of sexual desire or arousal at all for anyone. It just seems like there would be a lot less headache if that were the case.

I've been so disappointed with my church lately. I've been heartbroken by the response given to my young friend who reached out for help there. He is gay and doesn't want to be. People who I've known my whole life have responded so terribly toward him. These are people who I've loved and cared about and who I've worshipped with for so many years now, and it's just torn me apart in my soul to see how they've responded. It's made me glad in one sense that I never have told more people than I have about my own struggles. I wonder if they'd treat me the same way if they knew.

There were so many things I wanted to help bring about at my church. I wanted to help create more programs, get more people involved, be able to reach out into the community more and bring people to God, but none of that seems to be happening. Maybe I'm being a little impatient. I feel like I'm constantly fighting against everyone else though. A lot of my ideas seem to be brushed off or ignored. I seriously wonder sometimes why I always feel so compelled to stay at this church. A lot of times I just feel like people are pretending to care about me. I get the feeling sometimes that if I just stopped going, I wouldn't be too sorely missed. That thought bothers me. I don't want to sound too down on my church though. There are a lot of good things happening there. I just get so frustrated so much of the time about certain things.

I've also been angry with a particular family problem lately. I won't get into the details of that too much here, but it involves my brother and his kids. Their mother doesn't want them, but my brother and family does and can't get them. Someone outside the family is getting them instead, and it just feels like these kids are being stolen away from us and by someone who rightfully shouldn't have a say in anything related to them. I feel so helpless to fix the turmoil this has caused my family. There's nothing I can do. I can't help the people I love. And this is crushing.

I'd hoped on being a published writer of something at least somewhat noteworthy by now. I have all these really good ideas, yet I never find time to write anymore. I'm too tired or too distracted to ever concentrate like I should. And what I have written hasn't amounted to anything. I couldn't even get members of my own family to read my book a few years ago. I find that dream is still alive, but the goal just seems to keep getting further and further away.

I'm gonna be going back to school, but I honestly don't know why. I really don't know what career I want to pursue. I think maybe I'm just going for the sake of going. Everyone expected me to finish school and get a degree. I think maybe I'm just trying to live up to expectations. I'd like to graduate from college. I just wish I was more certain about the purpose of my going. I'd like to think that what degree I get may be put to some use.

I feel like I can't trust anyone. Some of the people who I thought were my friends I've recently found out they've been working against me behind my back. Aside from that, I miss some of my other friends. I haven't heard from some of them in a while now. Maybe they've just been busy like me and haven't had time to write/visit/phone/whatever. And I wish I did have more free time myself for such things. I miss spending time with these friends. I haven't had much opportunity for that lately.

I just wish I could get some answers. I feel stressed and frustrated and so clueless about what I should be doing in my life or how to achieve some of the hopes and dreams I have, and it just seems like God isn't answering me. I want guidance, direction, some blueprint for how to get from this stage in my life to the next. I want hope. I want encouragement. I want somebody to just tell me to keep on hoping and to keep on believing that everything will work out as it should. That God will lead me to a better place. I wish someone would tell me they love me. I wish I could get some rest and be able to stop worrying.

I just wish things could be good for a while. I'm just so tired of all this. I know everyone must get so sick of my whining around. I'm sick of it myself. I'm just so sick of feeling this way.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A Psalm of Sorrow and Distress

God, my eyes weap,
and my soul cries out for you.
I feel so far away from you,
and yet I long to be so close.
All joy in my life has left me.
I've lost all sense of direction.
I do not know what I should do.
I long for your guidance, Lord.
I long for your warm embrace,
and for your everlasting love to fill my empty soul.
I wish for your strength.
I need your help now more than ever,
for the the devil is pulling at me fiercely.
He is relentless at tormenting me.
I know my sorrow can only be taken away by you.
My salvation depends wholly on you.
It is in you that I place my trust and my faith.
Though I am weak, it is you that makes me strong.
Lord, I need you.
Please do not turn your back on me.
Please remain patient with me.
For it is you that I wish to please and to make happy.
Father, please just show me the way.
Please love me.

This is one of about five psalms I wrote to the Lord back last winter. I had forgot about writing it, but when I came across it, I felt like some of you may take some comfort by it. I've always liked the psalms of the Bible, and I always manage to find some encouragement and comfort by them. I believe it was my preacher who suggested back last year that we begin writing our own psalms to the Lord, and it helped me to do this. It made me focus on my emotions towards God and what was going on in my life at the time. It helped me to cry out to God when I needed to.

The thing I take away from this plea is my lack of closeness to God. I remember feeling as though God was nowhere in sight. I felt so far away from Him, as though He'd just completely abandoned me. Wonder why? It couldn't have been because at the time I was looking up pornography all the time, was ready to accept my homosexuality, was lusting ferociously after other guys, had distanced myself from people at my church, and was feeling so darn sorry for myself that I'd become blinded to the needs of all others around me. One of the things I've been learning from the Door of Hope course from Setting Captives Free is that God can't have any part of sin. So, when we sin, He backs away from us. He allows us to wallow in the hell we've created for ourselves. When we give up our sins, He draws closer to us. When we return to Him, He returns to us. I've been trying desperately to give up my sins here lately, and I have felt God edging His way back into my life. The longer I've stayed away from certain things, the more of God's warm embrace I've been feeling. I feel His arm around my back, holding me, and guiding me in the right direction. I feel God walking alongside of me. I'm still not where I'd like to be, but I do believe I'm finally heading in the right direction.