When We Can Not RUSH a Season... A Five Minute Friday post.

***

I see the Word prompt and I immediately know what He has been speaking to me... I'm amazed at how it all comes into clarity just at the sight of this one little word! It explains why it has once again been so quiet around these parts... and it reveals my longing and how even when my flesh wants what it wants... I have given Him full access and ownership of my heart - so I let Him be the Boss of me... even when I don't want Him to be!

Let's go! Our one-word prompt is: RUSH!

{GO}

Immediately I think, "How many times have I wanted to RUSH right on to the next thing? How many times have I pleaded to just be released to move along already?"

Too many to count, lately! 
  I'd love to rush the transitions.

It's hard enough sometimes to come to the end of something... a season or a dream or a task... and know it's the end. To be willing to let it go or lay it down. That alone is a challenge... But then to be held in a loving embrace that forces all forward motion to cease? I mean... come on!  

This is not how our culture works!

We find'success' and 'satisfaction' in our productivity and we often accidentally find our sense of identity wrapped up in what we do --even though we know it's really all about the being and not the doing.  

That's super great to SAY... but to actually allow Him to hold you still, and keep you small... hidden, even... That is something else altogether!

That is when the temptation to RUSH and to RUN can whisper sneaky and twist things just enough to almost convince you that it's really what is best.

It's not.

It's not what is best.

Not when the voice is drenched in only half-truths and the purpose is to lure you off course, --or even just to get you out ahead of where God is asking you to be in this season!

It's possible that the voice is not evil, per say...
just impatient!


Hello!
  We want what we want when we want it!

But God, right?

I mean - I have been discovering this over the last several months... I want what I want -but my heart isn't mine anymore! I willingly handed it over to Him... along with my life... and that means that I get to choose every day who is the boss of me!

When I choose me... 
  I'm only right some of the time!
But when I choose Him... 
  He never, ever, ever leads me astray!

Something about His promises and how He will never leave me or forsake me.

Something about the fruit of the Spirit including patience (dang it!) and trusting Him...

I say it all the time - how often we must do things anyway... even when we don't feel it.  How we often speak the truth... speak by faith... 

Something about calling those things that are not as though they are... and then, waiting and watching as they come to be!

It's that waiting and watching part that causes me to want to rush because --you guys!!! It can seem to take FOREVER, right?

But, God! *

He is always at work... He is always working things out for our good... even when it appears or feels like there is not one thing being worked out or there is not one reason to wait... there is! 

There is... because, as Grace Cho shared over at Ann Voskamp's blog this week, "the lack of cultivation in my life wasn’t a curse; it was meant to be a blessing."

...And THERE is it! 

This is why we resist the temptation to rush...

to produce and to work and toil and move ahead

even if/when He says to wait.

The waiting season is meant to be a blessing!

{STOP!}

We seem to have many friends
in the midst of a season similar to the one
we find ourselves in. 

It's a season of being in the In-Between... 
of knowing what was is done, 
but not quite sure yet of what is to come... 
of being in a season of transition
and of laying things down
and letting them die...
of trusting ANYWAY... 
of being willing to wait!

I don't know about you, but I know for me...
I have sped on by many things in the past
trying to make things happen
or convince God that I know the way...

Now, I am way more Willing to Wait... 
I'm intentional right now in staying Present,
and in tuning my ear to His speaking, 
and calibrating the longings of my heart
to beat to the rhythm of His!

In turn, the fruit seems to be the ability to
Resist the Rush in order to Embrace the Rest!

For we all know Rest is vital, and it's given for a reason! 

It's because a new season is coming... 
and we must learn (and re-learn and learn again!) 
how to Rest in the midst of Practicing Sabbath,
as well as in the midst of Being Swamped!

So let us not Rush ahead but be willing to wait and watch...
Let us tune our hearts and ears to the voice of God
and move when He says to move, yes... 
but also, to stay when He says to stay!

Even if/when it's hard!  
(It helps to remember, it's meant to be a blessing!)

The Five Minute Friday community is the best gathering of Flash mob 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 "RUSH"

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!

* = My actual Five Minutes ended here... Grace for allowing me to finish my thought!

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

Crystal Twaddell for #FreshMarketFriday

Mary Geisen for #TellHisStory

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Holley Gerth for #LetsHaveCoffee

IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF REST, MAYBE THIS SUMMER IS THE PERFECT TIME TO WALK THROUGH 31 DAYS OF RESTING IN HIM. IT IS A SHORT DAILY DEVOTIONAL THAT BOTH EXPANDS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF REST, AS WELL AS YOUR ABILITY TO TAP INTO IT!

31 Days of Resting in Him: ...It's easier/harder than you think!

P.S. We took a little break in August from our new podcast "Changing Our Minds" but we released a new episode! If you don't want to miss anything, click HERE for more info, and to Subscribe. It's also available now on Spotify and Stitcher, as well as right here on the blog under the Podcast tab!

(The above Amazon link as an Affiliate link. It costs you the same amount, but helps to cover the expenses of  the blog and podcasting!)