Another fiveminutefriday.com post.
This week the word is 'guide'

He is Always Guiding

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast. Ps 139:7-10

It is believed that David wrote this prayer right after he was made king by the people of Israel. However, keep in mind he was anointed as king when he was a young shepherd boy, the youngest of his brothers. He had to learn by both his friends and his enemies the omniscience and omnipresence of God.

How often do we go off on tangents, either in our thoughts or even our conversations and it seems like where we had set out to go isn't even on the radar anymore. There are too many distractions. Take this into the goals we have made and all of a sudden feeling like the Israelites wandering in circles, but today we are wondering what is wrong with the GPS. They were guided by a cloud and a fire, and it felt to them like they were going nowhere.

One thing I am learning, maybe as David did, is that wherever I am, wherever I end up, whatever roads I travel, I cannot be outside of His thoughts, His eyes or His reach. Also, and perhaps more importantly to me, I know more now, that neither can you.

David sinned most after he was king, and that cost him the most for his kingdom  after him, but still God saw his perfect heart of repentance. Knowing and loving us does not take our responsibility away from us.

Maybe some of us thought we would be somewhere different by now.  Maybe, like David, God has anointed us to a certain place, but we have to learn things about Him and ourselves before that calling is made public. He is not only a guide to lead, but a guide to keep. His hand is just as strong to keep us from moving forward as it is to hold us firmly in place.

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Where Christian writers expound their thoughts on a word a week. Check it out for a word buffet if you have a few minutes. Just browse, or link up and join in.
The word is place

A Longing For Home

We sat together outside his apartment on the bench. An independent living facility had been their home for a few years now. They had sold to a family member so they could still keep the attachment. It’s hard to leave a place where voices and handprints from infancy to adulthood still are embedded in the walls. Somehow you tell yourself you are taking them with you, but you know the solidity is in the place, for when you return and touch and smell, it all races back.

And he is progressing in his Alzheimer's now. His memory for past days is clearer. He talks about his trip to Ireland, the Homeland of his parents. When I ask him to describe it he pauses, and then “It’s a place”. That's all for his answer. And I thought, hmm.… it’s  a place. No memories that would stick, just a place to visit and then leave.

He went on talking about the train he took to work, the flowers he grew in the back yard, the summer picnics and his wife and their four children. This was more than a place. It was where his fondest memories were, and in his mind, he was there right then.
Sometimes we long for home, and the memories are different than what we really left behind. Because the reality is still there.

As a Christian I long for a home I have never seen, Heaven. My mind pictures and conjures up all kinds of images that I think it will be like. The Bible doesn’t really describe it much in detail. Streets of gold and a crystal Sea. There will be no darkness. There will be no tears nor sadness. There will be perfect love. Isn't that a place to call home!

Writing on this word "try" with five minute Friday.
I tried to write last night, but it just wasn't right. So I didn't try today. I just wrote.


Creativity or conformity?

God never asked us to try. He asked us to be. He said come to me. Learn of me. Be diligent and sober minded. Cast your cares upon me. Follow me. He didn’t ask that I be any different than who I am.

Yes, do the best you can with what you have, but don’t let it become striving. Yes, run the race, but run with patience. You won’t stop God’s work in you. You can’t get behind and you can’t go ahead.

When does a child stop being a child? When their being falls under the scrutiny of others and the challenge to grow becomes a force to conform?  What happens to creativity then? Too often it is locked behind walls of fear and mistrust along with the child they are. And another emerges into the light. One who is required to know and reason and judge as an adult before it was ever meant to happen.

Seek for the child perhaps hiding within and you will find the Kingdom of God.

“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Mk 10:15 (KJV)