SETTLE - A Five Minute Friday post.

***

I figured it is WAY past due to sit here and talk about something OTHER than Colossians! (Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course!) It's just I have only been managing to sit here every other week as we dig into the Word... but there are lots of other words to share --and it seems maybe, just maybe, they are ready to start bubbling up and pouring out again!

This is a Five Minute Friday post... which simply means I set a timer and free-write for five minutes flat on the one-word prompt: SETTLE... so let's go!

{GO!}

I mentioned last time I wrote an FMF post that God had oh so gently

whispered something to me about being both

Anchored and Tethered... 

And my immediate thought was along the lines of,

"Isn't that just how it is?!"  

At that moment, I most definitely felt Anchored AND Tethered... 

Anchored to a Truth that grounds us 

  yet Tethered to a Hope that asks us to fly!

Anchored to earth

  yet Tethered to Heaven...

Anchored to Faith and Promises and Holding our breath

  yet Tethered to the Waiting... the Doubting... the Heavy Sighing...

We have talked about it here oh so many times...

the Call to settle into the In-Between!

Listen,  I was (finally!) writing again in my journal this morning and this spilled out: 

"My Journaling has been sporadic at best. This isn't great, really, because I tend to process AS I write! It's been a long, hard season... --Actually, it's been a FEW long, hard seasons, all in a row..."

But this isn't unique to just us.  This is all of us --or at least some of us!

If it's not you... well, I am truly happy and rejoicing with you!

I really am more of a glass-half-full kind of girl, 

but I've lived enough of life now to say that maybe... 

well, maybe just enjoy the season you are in because

Change is constant

  -especially when we are not paying attention!

So I see this word and I can feel it! 

Do you know what I mean? I can feel the weight of it --no, the tension!

I can feel the tension --the push and pull... of settling and/or being settled!

Much like being Anchored and Tethered

and how it can seem like you are being pulled apart... 

how it can feel like you can't possibly be both

--And yet... we are!

We are Both/And people, aren't we?

We are part of a Here and Not Yet Kingdom...

Anchored to Limitations

  yet Tethered to a Limitless God

Anchored to His Word that is Truth

  yet Tethered to more than One Way He speaks to us!

Anchored to Life

  yet Tethered to Life Abundantly 

--which ironically always includes death!

We think it means somehow we escape it... but we don't. 

We aren't supposed to!*

If you have been here long at all, you've already heard me say it 

--but Fall is my Favorite because it is such a visual of something the Lord

whispered to me long ago on a gorgeous, vibrant, sad Autumn day: 

"There is always a bit of Glory in the dying!"

Man... we just don't love that part though, do we?

It doesn't matter if it is death as in loss of life and loved ones,

or if it is death as in laying something down or letting something go...

We want the Glory in the Here and Now... 

  and even though it doesn't ever feel like it, 

    we get the better deal of Here and Not Yet!

It's the enemy that tries to convince us that

we have to settle for one over the other...

He whisper-shouts that not striving for more is settling for less...

He tells us that the Rushing is more important than the Resting

and since this is the one life we can see... 

we fall for the lie that this is the one that should last forever... 

we fall for the lie that this is the one where we get the Glory!

The Glory is given in glimpses here on this side of eternity...

but Oh - the Glory to be revealed... 

...

So instead of settling for Less (or for Lies!)

and instead of setting up camp and refusing to 

move on, let go, or lay that thing down...

We are called to settle into the In-Between and 

TRUST HIM ANYWAY!

(I know... oh, friends... I know!)

(It's not my favorite, either!)

Change is always happening...

that is part of being Alive!

And we have been grafted into a Now and Not Yet world

where we have dual citizenship and the beauty and brutality of deciding to

Trust God in the midst of the In-Between... 

the decision to stay Anchored and Tethered is actually not at all

about Settling for less... but it is about knowing we were made for more!

{STOP!}

I remember as a young teenager, I purposed in my heart not to settle.  

I was an odd bird in that as romantic as I was,

I truly did not want to fall in love --not so young! 

I wanted to live a bit of life first and to discover who I was... 

I didn't want to settle for less... because, somehow --always grafted into my DNA--

was the faint sound of Him singing over me, assuring me that I was made for more!

He sings that song still... 

over me... over you!

He never asks you to settle... 

At least not until we are settling down

with Him at the Table...

But He does ask us to

lay things down, to let things go,

to settle into the In-Between

while He works things out for our good!

He does ask us to Trust Him anyway...

Even If, Even Though, and Even When...

So as your season shifts

from one to another... 

whether it be a welcomed,

long-awaited change

or yet another hit that keeps you

off-center and unsteady...

Settle into this Truth:

You are Anchored Here,

  but Tethered There!

You are Anchored to a

  Truth that grounds you...

    and Tethered to a

      Faith that gives you wings!

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 "SETTLE"!

* = This is when my 5-minute timer went off.

Grace, please!

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 about 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:

Mary Geisen for #TellHisStory

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Sue Donaldson for #LetsHaveCoffee

What stirs up in you when you hear Anchored and Tethered? I'd love to know in the Comments below!