When You Fall for the Lie that You Are Stuck... A Five Minute Friday post.

***

I completely forgot that last night was Thursday night which means a party over on Twitter with the #fmfparty crew. Sure, I missed Y'all, but let's be honest: yesterday was the first day that reached the 80-degree mark and that #patiolife was calling my name! You know how I roll!

It's also nearing 80-degrees already this morning however here I sit... letting this One Word prompt: STUCK have its' way with me!  This is Five Minute Friday!

{GO}

Come on, Kate! 
  Why you gotta do me this way?  

Every week, it's as if God is giving you the word and using it to stir me up to preach to myself Truths that I know, but sometimes forget!

I see the word Stuck and man, oh how I feel it! 
How I have felt it... 
the force of it, and the helplessness
of how it fits. (read: too tight)

And then He reminds me of what to do when you fall for the lie that you are stuck!


I wish I could tell you that He hasn't had to remind me of this truth time and time again... but He has. 

And He will... every time I need Him to do so! 
He's good like that!
He doesn't keep count.

What do we do when we feel stuck... when all around us and within us, the signs look like neon and the font is all shouty and the message that is screaming in the silence is that there is no way out.  

It goes something like this: 
"Well, here you are again. 
Same mountain... same stuckness." 
Or "You've really done it this time. 
There is no escape."

We can so easily be convinced that not only are we stuck... but that it's our own fault. Or lack of faith. Or short-term memory or tendency to hesitate and talk ourselves out of things (or into things... you know the drill!)

Or maybe it goes like this:
"It's out of your hands.  There is nothing you can do."
Or "I guess you just wait this out and hope for the best."

Yeah --the problem with both of those lines of thinking of being stuck is that they are just lies!

Our God is a God of promises
and a God of movement.
Our God is a God who paid the price
so our bondage was removed...
The ties that bind are bound no more.

So what do we do when we feel ourselves walled in tight and stuck in one place?  

We remember that it is for freedom that we've been set free!  We press into the God who knows our name
and who has a plan and a purpose for us
and we trust even more in the midst of the unknown!

We remember that often times when we feel STUCK, the Truth is that we are actually being hemmed in close and HELD!

HELD is so much better than STUCK, right?

We had been in a season of feeling Stuck and then finally we remembered that we have a say... that God actually desires to partner WITH us and us not moving forward is almost --almost!-- never His idea but our own fear or uncertainty.

In the midst of this season
of moving forward into the unknown,
the thing that God keeps singing over us
is how we are HELD...
and how He is IN us,
with us, and for us...
Always and Forever!

{STOP}

So often for us... for me... when we feel 'stuck' it's because we feel like things are not turning out the way we expected... or we question if we heard God right in the first place... or we believe the lie that there is no way out and we just hunker down into a belief that says it's all out of our hands and we deserve this... or maybe it whisper lies that we can change it if we just try harder... wait longer... be better... (fill in your own blank!)

But the Truth is we are never really stuck. 

Maybe we are scared... 
but that is not the same as being stuck!

Maybe we are in a waiting season... 
Those waiting seasons are supposed to
offer Wisdom and Rest,
not impatience and restless longings
for anything new or 'next'!

Maybe we are waiting on Him
and all the while, 
He is waiting on us!

Or Maybe we are HELD... 
And being HELD is so much better 
than being stuck!

"Held" Original Painting by Karrilee, Copyright 2018

Maybe He longs for us to settle in,
exhale deep, close our eyes, and just
Let Him Love Us!

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! 

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays give 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 "STUCK"

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 communities linked below:

Crystal Twaddell for #FreshMarketFriday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory

LORI SCHUMAKER FOR #MOMENTSOFHOPE

I also wanted to remind you that I am hosting a Giveaway this week.  Click HERE to enter to win a copy of Everybody Always by Bob Goff! (Giveaway open to U.S. Residents only.)