Discouragement settling in again

I woke up this morning to find Matt on the couch in a real funk. He's really discouraged again. Finding himself asking, "What am I even doing here?" He's frustrated because he doesn't feel a real connection to Sioux Falls at all, he goes to work, he comes home. That's about it. He doesn't feel like any of the friends that he has here really truly 'get' him (I'm afraid that includes me), and he doesn't have anywhere to really share his feelings on the post-modern worship that he's so passionate about. He misses his Indiana friends, Kyle, Luke, Erik and Jason, who seem to understand him better, and feel the same way.

I guess we both go through seasons of up and down, luckily, we don't usually hit the bottom at the same time, so we can try to help hold each other up, but I feel so helpless to pull him out of this pit right now. He's pretty stubborn, and if he wants to feel this way, I can't talk him out of it. Of course, ultimately, only God can lift him up and pull him out of dispair, so I leave it in His capable hands.

I've been learning a lot from the life of David this summer. For Mothers Day, Matt & the kids gave me a book called "A Heart Like His" by Beth Moore (sorry, I don't know how to do links. Look it up yourself). It's just the hardcover book, not the full-blown Bible study, but I've been taking a chapter a day and using it for individual study, and once again, Beth Moore is teaching me a lot about God's Word and applying it to my life.

So what I've been learning from the life of David is: sometimes God calls you to a ministry, but then doesn't give it to you right away. Maybe you will find yourself in a servant role, slowly building up your skills until you're put into a position of leadership, but even then, things might not go exactly as you thought they should, and you might end up living in a cave and leading a band of disgruntled followers, while God shapes you into the person He wants you to be. Meanwhile, it's OK to cry out to God in your distress, fear, discouragement and anger because you don't understand what He's doing with your life, but always remember that God is sovereign and faithful and well... God. And as such, He is worthy of our praise.

At least no one's trying to kill us. See? Could be worse! :)

So that's the update on the spiritual temperature in our house. Please pray for us.

Thanks!