How Jesus Settled the Score... - A Five Minute Friday post.

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I have been pacing myself back into a normal routine... resting my eyes a bit each day still. That resting time just so happens to be right around my normal writing time. So it has been quiet around here as of late. But that is not the only reason. The other reason is that we have had some changes in our little world... and since I write from my heart, I wanted to be sure my heart was good before I let any words spill out! 
#wisdom #yourewelcome #noteverythingismeantfortheinternets 

The Five Minute Friday community is the best gathering of Flashmob writers around!  We wait for the one word prompt and we throw caution and hesitation and editing to the wind, and we let our fingers fly and our feelings feel and we just wait and see what flows out in five minutes (or so! Because, grace!) and we hit Publish without second guessing or backspacing! 

Our one word prompt is: SETTLE! 

{GO}

I see this word and think, yet again, 
about how I am like a broken record and this word?
Yeah... it's not in my vocabulary.  

I've had to fight my way through
the temptation of it time after time,
and I've had to stand on ground that felt shaky and unsteady, 
but I know down deep in my bones that
God will never ask us to settle.

I say it all the time...
I preach it to family and friends... 
and to my own self when needed.

Settle, I believe, is not really in
God's vocabulary either!  

Well... at least not in some ways! 
Some definitions of Settle
are completely like Jesus... 
But others? --Not so much!

On this weekend, especially,
we know that our God
--He knows how to
Settle the Score, right?

After a blood-spilled Friday,
and a bloodstained Saturday,
our Savior rose from the Grave
and once, for all
(--that includes you and me, my friend!)
He settled the score and paid the price
and He won our victory!

And now He's after our hearts!

He did everything we could not do...
everything we could not imagine,
in order to settle things for us... 
to settle our debts and pay our 'bill'
and to offer us a place to call our own...

One definition of Settle reads like this:

"to adopt a more steady or secure style of life, especially in a permanent job and home."

Yeah. That.

   He did that.

And how? Oh my, how!  
He paid it all and tells us that now
we are adopted into the Family... 
we are now part of the Kingdom, 
a royal priesthood, sons and daughters!
And because He did all of that,
He's not one to convince us to settle for less.

We are His and this is His Kingdom...
But to settle for less? 
To settle for less than what He's promised?
For less than what He created you for?
For less than what you could ask or think?

Nope. He's not asking us to do that. 
He desires for us to be all that He created us to be!
And thank God, He created us all to be different, right?

He told us that if we could ask
or imagine or even think it,
it simply was not big enough!

But sometimes we get Big confused... 
Sometimes Bigger is not Better.
Sometimes Better is what He is asking of us,
but we assume it looks a certain way.
In letting Him settle us,
He actually stirs us up
and stretches us thin,
and reminds us of all
He wants to do in and through us.
He reminds us that He settled things for us,
so we wouldn't be tempted to settle for less.

He settled the score
so that we could be exactly
who He created us to be...
so that we could tap into
all that He paid for...

He paid it all...
Nail-scarred Hands
stretched out wide,
His Heart broken, 
Blood poured out,
and the Tomb left empty,
Death without a sting...

He paid it all...
So your hands
could hold Him,
So your heart
could settle in,
So New Life can be yours,
So your soul could sing!

{STOP}

Today is Saturday... 
right in between the
Terrible Truth of Good Friday
and the Resurrection Reality
of Easter Sunday!

Today we are often tempted to rush ahead...
to move right along now to the Good News...
But let's take a moment or two
to sit in the silence...
to remember what it costs to wait 
in the midst of the unknown.

My friend Kris Wood wrote a post
on facebook this morning and I can't shake it...
I don't want to shake it! 
I want to sit in the truth of it
and ponder what it must have been like
for the disciples so many years ago today.  

All the crying and the chaos...
the disbelief and the doubts...
the grief and the grappling...

All the what now's and the what if's... 
All the wondering and the wishing... 
and the waiting...
Oh let's not forget the waiting!

Let us sit in this today...
Let us Settle In to it
--feel the weight of it...
and let us remember all that
He Settled FOR us through it.

For He Settled the Score
So You Won't Have to
Settle for Less anymore!

Happy Easter, sweet readers!
He is Risen...

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: "SETTLE"

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!

Photo's courtesy of Unsplash

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

Crystal Twaddell for #FreshMarketFriday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Barbie Swihart for #Glimpsesofhisbeauty

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory

LORI SCHUMAKER FOR #MOMENTSOFHOPE