Wallowing is not a pretty word. Quite the opposite, as it evokes images of pigs rolling around in mud. Wallowing lends itself to filth. For many animals, wallowing is essential to their well-being. They get down in the muck and coat their bodies to stay cool and keep bugs away. There have even been studies done on why pigs wallow even in colder temperatures, and the highly scientific conclusion is that they like it.
Humans wallow in a different way that’s neither pretty nor helpful, but equally filthy. We sink down into our self-doubt, pity, self-loathing, and mistakes and roll around in them until we are completely bathed in their stink. Does this protect us? Make us feel better? Do we like it? I don’t think so because lately I have been wallowing, and all it’s done is drown me.
I’ve had a setback, and I feel disillusioned and without purpose. Like I’ve missed my calling, wasted my life somehow. But instead of dusting myself off and saying, “There’s no time to lose, sister, let’s get on with it,” I’m wallowing in disappointment, frustration, and failure. I’m covering myself in self-destructive negativity up to my eyeballs to do what, ward off the potential pain of fresh failure? It’s a trap. We can’t avoid new pain by steeping ourselves in old pain.
Maybe life hasn’t worked out the way you’d hoped and you’re doing some wallowing of your own. It’s time for us to speak truth over ourselves and get out of the muck. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that God knows His plans for each of us, “plans to prosper and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future.” Philippians 1:6 also says God “who began a good work in [us] will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.”
Those are not wallowing words, friend. They are dust-yourself-off-and-get-on-with-it words! Wallowing is good for pigs but not for people. Don’t let the grime of your past keep you in a pit when God has so much more planned for you.