Dive!

Time for a little 5 minute Friday! And boy do I need a homework break so this sounds wonderful! I’m in the midst of getting ready for my second to last intensive next week and I’m over my head in diagnoses and symptoms and signs…so here goes.

DIVE

Sometimes you dive into something and you have no idea what’s going to happen.  Sometimes you dive and you think wow that was awesome, I want to do it again!  Sometimes you dive, say it was awesome, and then not realize just how amazing and life changing everything really was until much later.  When I saw the word for today, all I could think of was when I went cliff diving in Greece with my amazing Greece buddies.  At the time, that was huge.  I was a chicken and we talked ourselves in circles forever until Kelsey braved it all and jumped.  I realized that day that while I can be a leader at times…sometimes I love following and having someone test the waters for me.  I love that when I am leading that God is doing that for me.  He’s going before me and behind me and making sure all is good and well and more importantly He’s walking right beside me.  I’ve got all sorts of things coming up that feel like a BIG jump and a BIG, SCARY risk to my heart.  I want to dive in fully, but all at once I want to hold back.  I want all the information first and I want to double check and cross my T’s and dot my I’s…but sometimes God just says go ahead…trust me and let go of your fears and stop being held back by them and instead live in the freedom that I give to those who know they are held secure in My hand.

 

Opportunity

5 minutes of writing on one little word.  Let’s do this.

Opportunity

I love opportunities.  The way they sneak around the bend and surprise you out of nowhere.  A chance to try something new.  A time to risk and jump.  Though, I also love steady and consistent.  That’s when the opportunities seem like they’re edging their way into the beautiful routine that’s already happening.  I think one of my favorite things about having a whole brand new year is that it’s a perfect opportunity for change.  I get to dream about all sorts of things that I want this next year to hold.  I get to say, “This year will be different.”  I can write down goals and be expectant for the ways that God will swing wide doors and even the ways He will guide me by slamming other doors shut.  I have to say that even though I know God has all sorts of things in store for this year of “free”….I’m still hesitant, tentative, wide eyed, and yet giddy about the God-given opportunities that will come my way.  I’m praying for the strength and bravery to say, “Yes.” even if it is said in a whisper.

Here

I’ve been back 2 weeks from Greece and I’m storing up all sorts of stories for you ready to spill out onto the page…until then here’s a little 5 minute friday!

Here

Here in this moment.  Here in this place.  The song echoes through my heart and I am still.  The echoes die down until I am aware of the power of a moment.  The moment Moses chose to walk to the burning bush.  When Joseph gave his brothers a second chance.  The way Peter walked on water.  God moves gently and powerfully in these “here” moments.  He beckons us to be ever present in the here and now.  If I find myself wandering to the past or the future too much, I’m missing out on the here.  There’s so much to be had right here in front of me.  The extra hug.  The chance to say I love you.  The opportunity to love someone well even if that looks far different than what they want.  Here….today…holds a day full of moments to be captured. What are we waiting for?

 

Your turn! =)

Beyond

Hey everybody! Welcome to Friday!  Time for a little write out your heart in 5 minutes with no editing, no stressing–just lots of fast typing, fun.  Today’s word prompt: Beyond

Beyond the ocean’s there are worlds to discover, sights to see, places to visit, people to meet.  Send me on a plane across the pond and I’ll jump with my feet first.  I’ll flounder around trying to get my barrings and wonder why did I come when I only have a few weeks.  My heart will want to stay forever.  Beyond the hello’s loom the good-bye’s that break my heart all over again.  I’d pack up all of my people in a neat little caravan and take them along on my journey if only that were so.  Instead, I’ll keep looking beyond the good-bye to the next hello.  Whenever that may come.  To love deeply and to experience the world and to know God, I’ve learned that I have to squish my eyes tight shut and jump into the unknown–the place beyond the comfortable and the safe.

—

I always want a couple more minutes but I’ll leave it at that and keep you wondering what else I would say.  Until then…your turn!

p.s. this is the picture I had in my head while I was writing…and let me tell you, it was absolutely terrifying to jump off that cliff but absolutely worth it!

brave

5 minutes to write! Ready set go!

I’ve come to be one of those people who equates brave with “doing it afraid” or “doing it scared.”  You shut your eyes tight and jump anyway.  Sometimes the landing is pretty and graceful while other times the landing is clumsy and awkward.  Your feet fling in the air mid jump and your eye go wide, but you’re still going.  The thrill comes after the “yes.”  After the jump has been made, then you celebrate.  You’re stepping out and trusting even while you’re head is on overdrive.  I find, for me, the peace and the rest come with the decision, the plan, the mid jump…beforehand, I’m too busy analyzing, contemplating, pondering.  Good things to do, but eventually you just have to be brave and say okay here goes nothing…God can work with my decision and goodness knows I’m trying to follow hard after Him.

End

psst. i love how this prompt so relates to my “jump” with my upcoming sri lanka mission trip. eep! there’s lots of “do it afraid” opportunities hidden in that opportunity. =)

5 Minute Friday-Trust

Playing along this week with writing for 5 minutes….

Trust

I can’t seem to get away from you. You followed me around 2011 and boy did you pack a punch.  You’re ruthless and you’re hard.  You’re a constant choice.  You’re a sweet surrender. You’re the calm waters at the end of the day.  You’re the rough and tumble wrestling match.  I trust when I’m afraid. I trust when I’m walking on the water. I trust when nothing is happening. I trust when I can’t see. I trust all the time and don’t even know it.  I consciously must to choose to discern safe and unsafe.  To recognize truth from lies. Trustworthy from untrustworthy.  Levels of trust.  Yet choosing to love even even when there isn’t trust because everyone is trustworthy. Unfortunately. I wish they were. Not everyone gets to come past the fence and into the house to sit down for a cup of tea. Those who do–they’re precious beyond belief.  Yet, even those people aren’t perfect. No one is. So get up, fall forward, and keep on discerning and learning to trust all the while leaning into trusting God for all else fades away and we can count it as loss.

Real

5 minutes of writing your heart out without editing or need for perfection on a Friday with a fun little prompt from Lisa-Jo. 

Real

I want real. I want honest. I want truth. Yet sometimes I get in the way of me and find myself stuck in what I’ve thought is real because of what I’ve been taught, heard, what’s been spoken over me, and what’s been my experience.  There’s freedom in knowing the real parts of life.  There’s a battle to be had when you’re fighting to become who you are all the while resting in knowing that it is who you because He says it is so.  It is so.  No matter what whispers you hear and what lies sneak their way into your head…His word stands firm.  He is the author and perfecter.  He is the creator.  He knows who He made you to be.  That’s the real I want to know.  That’s the real I’m fighting and battling for because it’s worth it.

Your turn!

Five Minute Friday

Throw off the need to be perfect.  Pull up a chair.  Take just 5 minutes to write out your thoughts, your heart, and whatever you like.  That’s the heart behind this little time set aside on Fridays.  To write and write and be free in your writing.  With a nice little prompt for some guidance.  Here goes!

Tender

At first glance, you’re one of those words I deem as awkward and unusable.  Yet, I’ll give you a chance today.  When I look beyond the surface, I see that you mean soft, gentle, showing concern or sympathy, to offer or present something formally affectionate, loving, mild, delicate.   You don’t sound quite so sticky in my mouth when coupled with those other words.  In fact, you remind me of the tender mercies that are new every morning.  Each morning, I get to open my eyes and start anew.  Or more accurately I get tousled and nudged awake by a little pup ready to play.  He’s tender.  He’s soft and cuddly.  He embodies both tenderness and fierceness.  A fierce loyalty–probably too much considering how he wants to be near me all.the.time. (i love that…)  That’s the beautiful thing about adjectives.  They can exist side by side without edging one or the other out.  They complement and show fully a complex and complicated person.  We don’t have to choose to be either or, but can be both.  There’s such sweet freedom to be found in the ability to just be yourself.  To celebrate who you are and not make excuses or talk down.  Instead to embrace all that He’s made you.

Your turn!  This was a hard one for me and the words didn’t flow…maybe it struck you in an easier way? 

5 minutes on Friday: Vivid

5 minutes of writing! Hello Friday!

Vivid

that moment I knocked on his door

the plane ride home

laying on my bedroom floor

a basement computer

a rickety dinosaur

singing on the beach

looking at the flags

The lines could go on and on to capture the vivid moments of life.  The snapshots of memories still fresh.  The way the feelings come rushing with a slight tilt of my head toward remembering.  Some are sorted and processed.  Others remain in progress and messy.  Each holds such weight and shaping.  Hindsight is 20/20 and God knows.  But God. But God. Hope sometimes seems lost but God says otherwise.  Things seem too messy to redeem but God sweeps down to create a brush stroke to shed glory and praise.  But God.  I cannot But God can. God can redeem.  God can make all things beautiful in their time.  God can shower me with hopes deferred.  God can. God can and God will do whatever is best.

5 Minute Friday Awake

Awake

Awake, my dear.

You keep hiding behind the curtains

Waiting for someone to call you on stage

Not knowing that you’ve been invited

To dance

To laugh

To play

To awaken yourself

and awaken the world to all that you live

don’t hide anymore

let them see you

let them behold the one He loves

let them take in all the beauty

that He created

so, darling

stop trying

to be anyone else

celebrate you

comparison skirts the edge of the cliff

leaving no winners

so awake

awake

awake to the life set before you

only you can sing your song

only you can awaken the desires

dream the dreams

do the good works

planned long before

just for you

stop looking around

and start living

awake.

———

5 minutes of writing your little heart out however that looks–sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes it’s loud, sometimes there’s stops and starts while other times you find flow, the beauty lies in writing what only you can do in just 5 minutes and leaving the ends loose because it’s okay not to go back and edit, edit, edit.  there’s freedom in just writing. so join in on the fun and link up at lisa jo’s for the prompt: awake