PLAN - A Five Minute Friday post

Oh man, last night was fun! Given, I was a little loopy from lack of sleep... spending a night in the ER will do that to you, I suppose! (All is fine... now!)  But I can't imagine a Thursday night without connecting with my people over on Twitter! From prayer requests to Gilmore Girls quotes, I love it all! However I was too exhausted to write coherently so this is a TRUE Five Minute FRIDAY! (You're welcome!)

I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.  

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is: PLAN

{GO}

Oh, Plans... how I love them!

I love to make them... and follow along with them (most of the time) and I love to have them to fall back on.

You know what I mean.

I am a planner... I love me some bossy lists and day planners on every desk. I love my calendar filled-in and mapped out and flexible --sure... but still - color coded is nice too, am I right?

Now - this is all true, and yet...

I am also a Dreamer and an Artist and I am Spirit-led and my, how He loves a good surprise! He loves it when we hold on to our ideas and plans loosely, and are willing to just let them go and follow His leading on any given day, at any chosen hour.

And I am learning.

I am learning to live my life wide open and ready for change. I am looking for when and where He shows up, breaks through, pours out... I want to be where He is, to speak what He tells me to, and be a conduit of His Glory unfurling.  I want to be willing to follow without hesitation and to lean in to a life more risky and full of faith!

My Honey's word for the year is Change and his desire is to be less predictable and more spontaneous and oh my goodness how this can push me out of my planners' heart and beyond my comfort zone! But then... well, I have already told you of how God keeps asking me who told me I could have one of those anyway? 

Gah... He is really passionate about that, it seems, because He keeps lovingly bossing me around and pushing me a little further out and a littler further out and am I not the crazy faith girl who wants to walk on water and raise the dead? 

I am.

I am that girl.

So for months I have told you that I have been wanting to plan my talk for an upcoming conference but He just won't let me.  I was asked to return as a workshop speaker again this year at a womens' event and I like love to have all my ducks in a row.

I am a writer - and I love to write out exactly what I want to say. Not an outline, y'all. Like - word. for. word. 

As a teacher, this feels responsible and makes sense and goodness, if He will let you - you should do that!  But lately He has been telling me that my calling as a 'teacher' per say is shifting and I am not that anymore.  

No - in this season, blending all of my giftings and desires with the plans that He has for me... well, He is calling me to be a Storyteller... to simply get up and speak up and share my stories --our stories.

He assures me that I cannot mess that up! (Something about my testimony and leaving room for the Spirit to lead me, as in - for real - in the moment. Something about trusting Him.  Yeah. That.)

So in the Amplified Bible, Proverbs 19:21 reads this way:

"Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand."

Yes. That. Many are the plans in a man's mind, right? 

But more than my plans...

     I want His heart!

I want His heart to be what people read and hear and encounter* and if that means tossing away my comfort zone and having nothing but a blank page, a worshipers' heart,  and open hands and ears tuned in, waiting to hear what He wants to speak through me in the moment... then that is what it means. And I will wait.

I will wait.  I will pause and breathe and I will remember that I am a carrier of His Presence and more than anything that I have to bring to the table... I want to bring Him.

{STOP}

* - This is where my 5minute mark hit, but again - I wanted to finish my thought... I pray for grace.

The organizer of this upcoming event asked me this week for a handout or info on what I am talking about to be included in the event booklet, but I had nothing.  She said she would just include the outline I sent her months ago.  Yeah... I made one - and since then, God has told me that it is pretty good and we might use some of it... but we might not use any of it! 

Fun times, y'all.  Stretching, growing, hold-your-plans-loosely-and-follow-Me times!  

But really, would we want it any other way?

What about you? Do you like to have everything all planned out and color coded, or are you more of a fly by the seat of your pants kind of person?  

I love the #fmfparty Community that gathers on Twitter and all across the Internet on Thursday nights and on Fridays... on into the next week, where we encourage and uplift... where we share prayer requests and praise reports... where we talk food and friends and we find support and kindred hearts and we are reminded that life is good and God is good and we are not alone... and then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts and our fingers do the talking tapping and we hit publish before we can second guess... we just let Him flow!   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 "PLAN"


Oh ...the fine print: if you don't know what FMF is!  Five Minute Fridays have been hosted by Lisa Jo Baker.  This week we start gathering over at Kate Motaung's.  FMF is open to anyone, so to learn more about it - and to jump in yourself (the more the merrier!) or just to find a linky to see what everyone is writing about today - click HERE!  The idea is to simply write... for Five Minutes flat... no editing, no deep thinking - or at least REthinking, no spell check - just write! Let it flow! We all write using a prompt that Lisa posts at 10pm Thursday night (EST.)  I'm loving the community of amazing bloggers and the creativity that flows from these magical Five Minutes!