Participating and learning with Kate Motaung and some wonderful writers  in a five minute (plus) free write.


The word is slow and I was slow in writing it.

//Not My Plan

When I think of the word slow, my first reaction is, “yup, that's me.” I'm a slow starter and a seldom finisher. I'm quick to stumble over the obstacles, get distracted by the opposition, and cave to the critics. The irony of all this is that my thoughts are always on fast forward, and so much more often than naught, they get tangled together so becoming a blur. Because of this if there is pressure to make a decision, impulsiveness takes over if I don't purpose to put the brakes on. I don't give myself permission to be slow or to say no. This past season in my life God has been teaching me it is okay to slow down. It's more than okay. It is necessary. He is not in a hurry with His plan. Why should I be? //

My son plays chess. He was showing me a match between a grand master and a child of about nine. It was a timed match. I was watching, mostly the child. He would take a few extra seconds to make a move, then make 4 or 5 really quick ones. I questioned his thinking. “He is planning His strategy, looking ahead at the board and the position of the pieces.” He makes one move, then the next few come very quickly. It falls in place with his plan.” As much as he was attentive to the game, he was also fidgety, looking around, shuffling his feet, his body not completely relaxed. He was slow when he needed to be and quick, not impulsive, when it counted most. He won the match. I walked away thinking about it.

I hope that boy can take those strategies beyond the board into his daily life. So many can't and unlike the game, you can't just clear the board and start over. Mistakes, decisions and responses follow you into the future.  But the truth is, God knows the moves we are going to make and He doesn't press delete or put the game away. He walks with us, wherever we go, however long it takes. He teaches you to slow down, and introduces to you within that process new strength, new faith and revelations of the truth of who He is and always has been.

I think of Moses. He was hidden in a basket and found by the Egyptian girl. He was raised by the Pharoah in a palace. One day he did something very impulsive. His anger got ahead of his rationale  and he killed an Egyptian. He then ran away to the backside of a desert and didn't return for 40 years. He lived a secluded life. He married, had kids and raised sheep. A slow start. He thought He probably thought he would die there with no remembrance or legacy. But we know God didn't forget.

And then the wilderness. Forty years walking in circles. Many died. Moses was now leading a slow, complaining people. How did he feel?

But God, I don't have 40 years left! It's all been circles! No, it hasn't. Knowledge is increasing and it seems time is flying and everyone is hurrying and expects you to keep a pace. And when you can't keep up, out feel you let everyone down. But time is the same. One second lasts one second. There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour; days, weeks, years, the same.  It's all God's slow process and it's for our learning who we are and who He is. It's learning how to make space for His grace. It is not in ourselves to become who we are because we haven't a clear view.

I don't understand chess. How do I know what the other person is going to do? I guess it has something to do with the odds. I can't gamble with God. It's Him against no one really. I can't fight Him. I can't flee Him. He wants me to slow down. Not really a bad thing. But when He quickens me, He wants me to keep pace.

If I drink my coffee slow, the warmth of it will envelope my senses.

The extract is by the teaspoon and it infuses the whole batch.

A sprinkling rain will refresh and nourish the ground, whereas a deluge will flood and destroy.

Too warm too soon in Winter can make for an unproductive crop in the summer.

We want a quick healing, an instant reconciliation, complete understanding. We don’t want to write a second and third draft, rehearse a twentieth time, repeat the course again.

It takes time, it takes slow and it takes process to see and discover all we are created for.

FMF with Kate Motaung
The word is “weak”

Not Meant for Shame, Only Gain

“We are weak, but He is strong”. Remember the child's song? “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.  I sang it in Sunday School. I loved it. I knew I was weak and wanted to trust there was someone who was stronger who would help me. The only thing I really saw was people who were getting stronger, learning more and not helping.  I saw my weakness as a negative thing so I got stronger in my pride and I left the song behind for the children. I could handle things on my own. When all fell apart around me it became my cry, my plea. However, I didn’t sing it with assurance, I sang it with desperate hope. “Oh Lord, please let it be true”.

When I finally reached out and called out to the Lord it wasn't in my strength. It was in weakness. My own strength never draws Christ unto me. It's the one truth I keep learning. Is also the one thing I still don't like. Who likes weakness? Don't we usually try to hide it?  We boast in what we accomplish, the good and healthy decisions we make, how far we have come, but who boasts in weakness? Seems like once we think we have it together we blow it, if not in one area, then in another.  It can paralyze and pride can move right in. The moment I think I am strong, it's like asking the Lord to step aside and let me take His place.

Jesus didn't die for the strong or as the strong. He died in His own human weakness. He had to be broken and depend on God the Father.  I too need to be broken and depend on Christ the resurrected one. Then I can look at my weakness and say “It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed”. (Lamentations 3). And in our weakness, that is where Christ strengthens us. That is where the confidence comes from. That is where we will find our true hope.  The children's song is for all of God's children, no matter how old. He is our daddy, our Abba.

Paul said “But He said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me”. Paul knew, and he had more to boast of in his flesh than most. But he met the Lord and his accomplishments took a back seat. May I keep seeing my weakness as an avenue to Christ and not a refusal to believe in His power.

When I finally dare to fall to pieces, that is where I will fall into peace.

The word this week is “safe”
Kate Motaung Five minute Friday

The I can and I cannot of safety

//Psa 91:1

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

I can stand beside you
I can listen to you
I can talk with you
I can cry with you
I can laugh with you
I can pray with you
I can feed you
I can advise you
I can support you
I can hold you
I can drop what I'm doing and come to you
All to help you feel safe.//

But

I cannot save you
I'm not God

I cannot explain it all
I'm not all knowing

I cannot heal you
I'm not the physician

I cannot remove it all
I'm not all powerful

Only the one who can save you is the one who can safeguard you.

We are not protected from the storms; we are held tight in the storms.

I’m writing again with Kate Motaung five minute Friday
I know I thought I wouldn't do this anymore, but I decided it is a good exercise for this wannabe writer. And yeah, I wrote for five minutes and then some. I'm a slow thinker.

Breathe Easy

//Breathing moves us into the next moment. Life continues only because we breathe. “God breathed into his nostrils and the man became a living being.” Gen 3:6. God exhaled into us His life so we could inhale and exhale it back to each other; a constant exchange of life between life. What a precious gift, and probably the least recognized until we are grasping for it.// Think of every blood cell carrying oxygen to your heart so you can breathe. Yet just think of the things that constrict our breathing. All of the toxins of pollution, smoking and chemicals that we can never thoroughly escape. Yet the rejuvenation and resuscitation of our amazing, created bodies can keep us surviving so much.

What about the spiritual? I Think of the toxicity of words. Words that I inhale into my thinking and exhale into others have power. They can motivate and lead to more life or they can constrict, causing labored breathing in the soul. We can bring life or death with our words. We can breathe out hate and distrust, or encouragement and hope. I know that I have done both. I have caused many a soul attack. Yet I somehow am being resuscitated  all the time.

What resuscitates the soul?

One thing I believe is the prayers of others. Oh, how I seem to breathe easier when I know someone is praying for me. I feel the surge of spiritual adrenaline propel my soul. Even if physically drained I know my soul is still breathing. Jesus rebuked the disciples for not praying with Him in His greatest hour of need in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed so earnestly He sweat drops of blood. His prayer took Him to the cross.

Where will our prayers take us? Where will they take others? Inhaling and exhaling the breath of God.

Writing with Kate Motaung

I thought a lot about this. Almost didn't write, again, but it is one word that gnaws at me so here it is, the one lesson I spend my life not quite learning. The word is control.

Then
All the wanderings
All the disobedience
All the wars
All the evil kings
All the strategies
All the deaths
All the persecution
All the Martyrs
None of it ever stopped God from fulfilling His plan

Now
Whatever the suffering
Whatever the immorality
Whatever the war
Whatever the hatred
Whatever the pretense
Whatever the fear
Whatever the abuse
Whatever the injustice
None of it will ever stop God from fulfilling His plan
He is in complete control

The word with Kate Morning is…

Refine

I wrote. For  two days analogies were formed, gathered from what I heard, what I saw and what I knew. Getting sliced and diced, falling short from lack of thought and expression even though a novice, right now didn't sit well with me. I’m hearing too much of that these days. In the end, angry with myself, the shredder got its fill and I sat with nothing I considered suitable. And the deadline (in my mind) ad passed.

Often God takes all I have and lets it fall. I fight for what I deserve believing I will somehow be less without it.

Refining is removing the strength that inhibits the pure. I think “what good is the birthright if I'm going to die anyways?” I sell it short.

Redemption is absolute and finished. Christ redeemed me. The refining process is continual.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil 1:6

Lean Toward the “Middle”

Yes, this is a five minute Friday word. I said I was done, but, okay, I am slowing down, weaning myself, and really to be honest, following the rules, which means 5 minutes fom // to //

Christ hung on the cross in between 2 thieves. He was in the middle. One said “Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us! The other said “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Lk 23:42

He wouldn’t come down. His dying was to pay for the sins of both.

Now resurrected He is seated still in the middle between the redeemed and the lost. Am I demanding He save me from my situation? Does He have to prove Himself again to the lost? He promises.” …lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the world”. MT 28:20 And…”I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever..” Jn 14:16

Should that not be enough?//