***
My fingertips and my heart have been gently urging me back into this chair!
It seems the last several times I have come to sit here, I end up frustrated in trying to format and edit a few projects instead of pouring out new words in this space! So today --I'm starting here and (depending on how this goes!) I will tackle the other things next! But first: This is a Five Minute Friday post... which, as you should know by now, simply means I set a timer and free-write for five minutes flat on the one-word prompt: EXPERIENCE... Let's go!
It seems the last several times I have come to sit here, I end up frustrated in trying to format and edit a few projects instead of pouring out new words in this space! So today --I'm starting here and (depending on how this goes!) I will tackle the other things next! But first: This is a Five Minute Friday post... which, as you should know by now, simply means I set a timer and free-write for five minutes flat on the one-word prompt: EXPERIENCE... Let's go!
{GO!}
Experience... I see the word and immediately feel my age. I think of all the different areas in my life I have gained experience. And I think of all the areas I am lacking experience still.
We're all in Process...
We are all Becoming...
We are all experts in some ways and inexperienced in other ways!
In a season where I am feeling my inexperience, learning a new job in a new field, relearning how to care for a toddler and teach her in the way she should go, and remembering how to worship without building walls around my heart... --I feel the pull to dwell on the things I do not know... --on the things I'm failing or flailing at and not doing so well...
However, I know the Light and the Faith and the Hope lies in remembering the things we DO know... in recounting the experience we have gained, as well as focusing on the things He is sowing and stirring into us even now.
He is at work... all the time! He never gives up or taps out...
He's All In with us! And He longs for us to be All In with Him!
Here's the thing, friends:
I'm tired, Y'all.
As in... Weary. And it hit me hard just a couple of days ago, how much of this exhaustion is because I have been focused on learning new things (which is required of me right now!) but in being so determined to learn something new, I have forgotten some pretty major things I already know!
Things like --Peace is a Person... and He never goes anywhere! He is always near and Peace is always a choice we get to make... it's just that sometimes I forget to choose Him! (Thank Him that He is patient and kind!)
Things like --a Sacrifice of Trust... I wrote about that the last time I sat in this chair. (It's a choosing to trust God anyway! A trusting until...)
Things like --a Need to spend time with God in the Word... He ever so gently told me as great a motivator and encouragement my Bible App is at keeping me accountable and in the Word every day, I've been spending more time with the App than I have with Him. (Oops... and Ouch... and I'm sorry, Jesus!)
Things like --a Sacrifice of Praise... and the importance of singing with my whole heart --even if it is still a bit bruised and busted up! (It's the only real way to fully heal it!)
The most important experience I have gained --or that I will EVER gain-- is all wrapped up in Him!
It's a simple Truth that can change a life... it can heal a heart and course-correct a path... it can renew hope and refresh the weary... It's not tricky or hard or requiring experience or fore-knowledge to master. All it takes is practice and a desire to do it consistently, over and over and over again-- when you feel like it and even when you don't!
This is what I know that makes the MOST difference in my real everyday life:
Press into God --even when
(or especially when!)
my flesh tells me to back away! *
Press IN
Saturate yourself in His Presence...
on your own and with fellow Lovers of God...
in Song and in (the) Word and in Deed!
Live your Life and your Faith Out Loud!
{STOP!}
We came home from church this afternoon after a great service and a nice lunch out with friends and we laid down and took a little nap. It was wonderful... much needed physically and spiritually. We had worship playing quietly in the background and twice, the Lord nudged me awake with a call to soak in the truth of these words,
"Run to the Secret Place! I'm waiting for you there!"
This is a truth I used to do every day without having to be told or beckoned or reminded!
I've missed Him --even as I have pursued Him.
I so needed to break out of going through some motions, that I hadn't noticed that I had also accidentally stopped doing habits that are actually good and right and Oh So Necessary!
And then this song came on... I've never heard it, but it was instant confirmation:
And then, as I typed this post and looked for photos to add, this song came on and Oh My Goodness... So Much THIS:
"Take me back to the garden, Lead me be back to moment I heard Your voice. Bring me back to communion. Lead me back to the moment I saw Your face.
It was all so simple. It was easy to love. No space between us. It was easy to trust.
You are closer, closer than my skin. You are in the air I'm breathing in. Here's where the dead things Come back to living. I feel my heart beating again. Feels so good to know You are my friend."
"Communion" written by Steffany Gretzinger, Brandon Lake,
Dante Bowe, Tony Brown, and Jonathan Jay.
I can't say for you --but for me?
Worship stirs up my desire to pursue His Presence
and His Presence stirs up the experience of
Becoming who I am meant to be!
My Sissy and I were talking this evening and she said she missed me. My first thought caught me a little off guard because it was, "Me, too! I miss me, too!"
How many know life can get all kinds of Bossy and we can lose sight of who we really are in the rush of living.
I encourage you to take a moment and listen to the songs above. Turn up your volume if you can and let the Words saturate your heart and become your prayer!
Maybe you, too, will begin to feel a bit more like You!
At least that is what Worship is doing for my soul in this season!
May you experience His Presence
and the unfolding, reoccurring experience of Becoming,
over and over, again and again,
more like You... more like Him!
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 "EXPERIENCE"!
* = 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!
Photo's courtesy of Unsplash.com
I'm also linking up with the lovely writer communities linked below:
{GO!}
Experience... I see the word and immediately feel my age. I think of all the different areas in my life I have gained experience. And I think of all the areas I am lacking experience still.
We are all Becoming...
We are all experts in some ways and inexperienced in other ways!
In a season where I am feeling my inexperience, learning a new job in a new field, relearning how to care for a toddler and teach her in the way she should go, and remembering how to worship without building walls around my heart... --I feel the pull to dwell on the things I do not know... --on the things I'm failing or flailing at and not doing so well...
However, I know the Light and the Faith and the Hope lies in remembering the things we DO know... in recounting the experience we have gained, as well as focusing on the things He is sowing and stirring into us even now.
He is at work... all the time! He never gives up or taps out...
He's All In with us! And He longs for us to be All In with Him!
I'm tired, Y'all.
As in... Weary. And it hit me hard just a couple of days ago, how much of this exhaustion is because I have been focused on learning new things (which is required of me right now!) but in being so determined to learn something new, I have forgotten some pretty major things I already know!
Things like --Peace is a Person... and He never goes anywhere! He is always near and Peace is always a choice we get to make... it's just that sometimes I forget to choose Him! (Thank Him that He is patient and kind!)
Things like --a Sacrifice of Trust... I wrote about that the last time I sat in this chair. (It's a choosing to trust God anyway! A trusting until...)
Things like --a Need to spend time with God in the Word... He ever so gently told me as great a motivator and encouragement my Bible App is at keeping me accountable and in the Word every day, I've been spending more time with the App than I have with Him. (Oops... and Ouch... and I'm sorry, Jesus!)
Things like --a Sacrifice of Praise... and the importance of singing with my whole heart --even if it is still a bit bruised and busted up! (It's the only real way to fully heal it!)
This is what I know that makes the MOST difference in my real everyday life:
Press into God --even when
(or especially when!)
my flesh tells me to back away! *
Press IN
Saturate yourself in His Presence...
The most important experience I have gained --or that I will EVER gain-- is all wrapped up in Him!
It's a simple Truth that can change a life... it can heal a heart and course-correct a path... it can renew hope and refresh the weary... It's not tricky or hard or requiring experience or fore-knowledge to master. All it takes is practice and a desire to do it consistently, over and over and over again-- when you feel like it and even when you don't!
Press into God --even when
(or especially when!)
my flesh tells me to back away! *
Saturate yourself in His Presence...
on your own and with fellow Lovers of God...
in Song and in (the) Word and in Deed!
Live your Life and your Faith Out Loud!
{STOP!}
We came home from church this afternoon after a great service and a nice lunch out with friends and we laid down and took a little nap. It was wonderful... much needed physically and spiritually. We had worship playing quietly in the background and twice, the Lord nudged me awake with a call to soak in the truth of these words,
"Run to the Secret Place! I'm waiting for you there!"
This is a truth I used to do every day without having to be told or beckoned or reminded!
I've missed Him --even as I have pursued Him.
I so needed to break out of going through some motions, that I hadn't noticed that I had also accidentally stopped doing habits that are actually good and right and Oh So Necessary!
And then this song came on... I've never heard it, but it was instant confirmation:
"Run to the Secret Place! I'm waiting for you there!"
This is a truth I used to do every day without having to be told or beckoned or reminded!
I've missed Him --even as I have pursued Him.
I so needed to break out of going through some motions, that I hadn't noticed that I had also accidentally stopped doing habits that are actually good and right and Oh So Necessary!
And then this song came on... I've never heard it, but it was instant confirmation:
And then, as I typed this post and looked for photos to add, this song came on and Oh My Goodness... So Much THIS:
"Take me back to the garden, Lead me be back to moment I heard Your voice. Bring me back to communion. Lead me back to the moment I saw Your face.
It was all so simple. It was easy to love. No space between us. It was easy to trust.
You are closer, closer than my skin. You are in the air I'm breathing in. Here's where the dead things Come back to living. I feel my heart beating again. Feels so good to know You are my friend."
"Communion" written by Steffany Gretzinger, Brandon Lake,
Dante Bowe, Tony Brown, and Jonathan Jay.
I can't say for you --but for me?
Worship stirs up my desire to pursue His Presence
and His Presence stirs up the experience of
Becoming who I am meant to be!
My Sissy and I were talking this evening and she said she missed me. My first thought caught me a little off guard because it was, "Me, too! I miss me, too!"
How many know life can get all kinds of Bossy and we can lose sight of who we really are in the rush of living.
I encourage you to take a moment and listen to the songs above. Turn up your volume if you can and let the Words saturate your heart and become your prayer!
Maybe you, too, will begin to feel a bit more like You!
At least that is what Worship is doing for my soul in this season!
May you experience His Presence
and the unfolding, reoccurring experience of Becoming,
over and over, again and again,
more like You... more like Him!
Worship stirs up my desire to pursue His Presence
and His Presence stirs up the experience of
Becoming who I am meant to be!
My Sissy and I were talking this evening and she said she missed me. My first thought caught me a little off guard because it was, "Me, too! I miss me, too!"
How many know life can get all kinds of Bossy and we can lose sight of who we really are in the rush of living.
I encourage you to take a moment and listen to the songs above. Turn up your volume if you can and let the Words saturate your heart and become your prayer!
Maybe you, too, will begin to feel a bit more like You!
At least that is what Worship is doing for my soul in this season!
May you experience His Presence
and the unfolding, reoccurring experience of Becoming,
over and over, again and again,
more like You... more like Him!
* = This is when my 5-minute timer went off.
Grace, please!
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:
Coming from FMF today. Your neighbor. I believe we are on the same wavelength. Experience in our faith is what makes our salvation real. I actually wrote this weeks' post and scheduled earlier and it happened to fit in with Kate's word! God Bless
ReplyDeleteI just popped over to read your post! Yes and Amen... we must do more than believe... we must experience the truth of our lives lived for Him! We must press in to our Becoming!
DeleteSo glad you stopped by, neighbor!
Sometimes we forget! ;) Love the songs you shared, friend!
ReplyDeleteRight? (Like --even when we promise ourselves we won't!) ;) Love you, too!
Deletexoxo
I'm late in reading this but glad I did. Now, I know how to pray for you. xoxoxoxox
ReplyDeleteThank you, friend! We will take all the prayers!
Deletexoxo