When You Are Longing For a Path to Take You Away - A Five Minute Friday post

I know... I'm a broken record about how I keep missing out on the party but, Life, man! It keeps pulling me thin and pushing me around! I made it over to Twitter for a few on Thursday night, but I've been fighting off fatigue paired with some fun (read: only NOT!) little bug that kept me in bed for most of the week! 

But I'm here now... and mostly upright, so let's do this thing:

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: PATH

{GO}

I have been stuck in the Book of Psalms lately.

I blame it on The Passion Translation and needing a bit of poetic fire in my life, or maybe it's the searching for contentment and needing encouragement.

Either way - I am thankful for it! Reading familiar passages in new-to-you translations, I am finding, gives me all of the above!

Just the other day I ran across this gem in Psalm 25 and I had to look it up in The Message Bible, too! (Because, of course!)

"From now on every road you travel will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs; Read the charted directions." Ps 25:10 The Message

So good, right?

This is how it reads in The Passion Translation:

"May they obey you, and follow you in the pleasant paths of love and faithfulness! For your love surrounds them as your truth takes them forward." Ps 25:10

Honestly, isn't that what we all want? 

We desire pleasant paths... 
We desire love and faithfulness... 
We desire truth that takes us forward... that pulls us along the plans He has laid out before us!

It is.  
Most of the time, it is!

Lately I have been longing for a path to take me away.  
An escape of sorts... not that things are bad, or hard, even --but I haven't been able to breathe deep and unwind.

So I found myself a chunk of quiet time --finally with a clear head (read: no more stuffiness or sickness!) and a calm heart. I sat and prayed and actually listened for what He wanted to tell me.

What He whispered oh so clearly was this:

"You have been disgruntled with Me lately."

Hmm...well - that is not the word I would choose, Lord!

I mean, I was not mad at Him. I hadn't stopped talking with Him or praying.  We were still good... and yet... there had been something off. 

He and I both knew it. 

I blamed it on my lack of vacation and way too bossy schedule. I blamed it on exhaustion, lack of communication, and feeling a bit angsty and --well, maybe I should look up what disgruntled means. 

It turns out Disgruntled is defined as:

"peevish, angry, discontent"

Well... maybe He's smarter than me, yet again. 

Maybe I HAD been a bit disgruntled.  

He graciously taught me last summer how to Rest each week... how to set aside a day and that has been what my Mondays are for. He taught me to Rest when it was Slow... and now here we are, Busy. (And He told me this would happen!)

But in all my making adjustments to my calendar and penciling things in, I forgot to be thankful! 

After all, I am still able to rest. I don't feel burned out, but I was feeling like if I kept going in the same direction, I would hit a wall. And Hard. And it felt like no one cared.

Turns out, I was feeling disgruntled!

I began to feel like He tricked me... like He taught me how to Rest last summer in order to trade vacations for resting right where I am at. I didn't want it to be an either/or, but more of an upgrade... more of an also/and.* 

I was carrying all those heavy burdens that aren't mine to carry and I was working and striving even though I know that is not His way. 

I have been all about Matthew 11... 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

I have based my life on this Scripture... and yet Romans 5:1-2 had been taunting me for weeks.

"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise."

It was taunting me because I know it to be true... but all of the sudden, life was feeling so... unfair.

I began to wonder if Depression was at my door and I didn't know it. 

I was longing for wide open spaces of God's grace and glory but felt cramped and locked indoors, so when He leaned in close this morning and said I was disgruntled, I didn't want to admit it.

I didn't want it to be true.  And yet, I felt the truth of it and I heard Him say,

"When you open the door to discontentment, everything seems unfair."

Well then... there you go!  

As I admitted it, repented of it, and handed it all back over to Him... I felt a release. 

I remembered the truth of Psalm 25:10 that says that every road we travel will take us to God!  We only must follow the Covenant signs (which are love and faithfulness!) and read the charted directions (which is His love that surrounds us!) and the truth will take us forward.

The truth, I have heard it said, will set us free!
And freedom, it turns out, is what I was missing!

{STOP}

Well - my Five Minutes were up at the " * " but I pray you will give me grace.  

After my time with the Lord this morning... after admitting how my heart was being drawn to the rhythm of Not Fair, I leaned in and entered in to His Rest... I allowed His heart to beat louder than anything else and I felt a recalibration taking place. 

For the first time, in a long time, I feel rested.

The Path I was longing for, it turns out, was Jesus all along! 

He IS the way, the truth, and the life.  

He is the only escape and refuge I need.

(and He also assured me that He has a vacation in mind... and soon! So there is that, praise God!)

What about you, sweet reader? Are you feeling rested as this new season fast approaches? Are you at peace... finding yourself in wide open spaces of his glory and grace? If not, it would be my honor to pray for you!

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click HERE to read what others have to say about: "PATH"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to have you join us!

I'm also linking up with the lovely writer community linked below:

#FreshMarketFriday... how adorable is that?

Kelly Chripczuk  for #SmallWonders 

Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Lori Schumaker for #MomentsofHope

Barbie Swihart for #Glimpsesofhisbeauty

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory

Because it's just like the enemy to cause you to not remember the truths you know... and it's just like the Lord to use your own words to speak life back in to you... I have been reading through my own ebook entitled 31 Days of Resting in God ...it's easier/harder than you think!  It was full of reminders that I needed in the midst of this busy season! You can purchase it by clicking here or grabbing it from the side bar to the right if Rest is something you know you need, but just keep putting off as well!