His Ways are Higher... Perspective - a Five Minute Friday post.

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My, Oh My!  It's been a long pause, hasn't it? I'm hoping that at least Y'all are signed up for the monthly Newsyletter --but even that, as of late, hasn't quite exactly been monthly, per se!  I had a sweet reader reach out to me last week, taking notice of my absence! (Thank you, Connie, for your kind email!)

It has felt as if the enemy has, yet again, been after my Voice! In quite literal terms, I've been battling some sort of something for too long but I have turned the corner and am feeling much better! (Let me tell you, having allergies or any sort of cough or little bug is SO uncool right now! No one loves it!)  Anyway --here I sit, in this old familiar place, completely out of the habit of writing... but that hasn't stopped me from jumping right back in before... so Let's go!

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: PERSPECTIVE.

{GO!}

I see the word and my first thoughts go to, "Yes, please!"  

Oh My --how we need a bigger perspective than what we are often limited to-- especially lately!  As the Word so clearly states, His ways are not our ways... His thoughts are not our thoughts! 

We need to take a breath... back up... hold our tongue (and our opinions) for one hot minute and remember that no amount of experience, theories, data, or even experts are going to give us what He offers us for free... 
all day, every day!

...And what He offers us - all day, every day, is Himself!!! 

Not only does He offer us

Love and Forgiveness and Life Abundantly, 

but He also offers us Wisdom, Peace, Hope, and Healing.

He offers us Freedom, Faith, Grace, and yes, Perspective!

Because His ways ARE better...

His thoughts ARE higher... 

But let's not forget that that verse I quoted

is in the Old Testament (Isa 55:8-9)... 

and I've got good news for you. 

We are told in the New Testament

that we've been given the mind of Christ! (1 Corinthians 2:16)

He promised that for Him to go away was better

because He would send His Holy Spirit

who would guide us in all truth!

I mean... guys!??! I love Jesus and all... 

but I can't tell you how grateful I am that He went away

and in His place, He gave us the same Spirit

that raised Him up from the dead! 

He gave us The Helper and --well...

I can't say for you but I know for me...

I could use a little Help every now and again!

(Read: all day, every day! Right?)

Especially during this time --when so much around us is unknown and unchartered!  We've never been through anything like this before and while I am feeling grounded and secure... tethered to the One who holds it all together all the time... so many around me are reeling and feeling out of control! (Side note: This hasn't changed... we don't actually have control... but the illusion of control has been ripped out of some of our hands and the reality that this life is not our own and our plans -no matter how carefully laid out- may not come through has some of us standing on shaky ground!)

But I think even that is in our favor! 

He is shaking all that needs to be shaken.

I read in my Bible just this morning, this:

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]” John 16:33 Amplified Bible

Be Courageous...
Confident...
Undaunted...
Filled with joy...

Sounds good to me!

(What about you?)

{STOP!}

I'm not sure how you've been spending your days during this Quarantine life... but I know for me --in addition to fighting for my voice and my healing, I've been working at entering into His Rest! We've talked about this time and time again, right? How not doing stuff is not the same thing as resting!

I am blessed in that I am still trying to balance all my 'jobs' --but doing it from home without the luxury of clear work hours and some preset boundaries already in place is proving tricky.  It's been easy to sort of try to go about my days like working from home is the only change!  But it's not... everything is shifting and while some things (read: the big things!) have remained steady and secure, other things are a bit unsettled and unsure! If I'm not mindful, I can continue to simply push aside or silence my feelings in order to stay productive in getting things done! But we know this is not healthy or advised, right? We know that we need to create some space for our feelings to rise to the surface so we can check-in and know how we are really doing --down deep in our soul!

So, what about you, Sweet Reader?
How are your feelings feeling?
Have you checked in with them lately? 

I know well the temptation to act like most things are normal and to just keep going forward! But this pandemic is all new and we have to give ourselves permission to grieve and to acknowledge all that is unknown and up in the air! 

I shared this thought on Facebook the other day, but it warrants repeating here:

I don’t believe we need to be fearful or anxious...
I don’t believe we are in despair or without Hope! 
Rather... Hope is here and He’s got us all
in the palm of His nail-scarred Hands! 

We WILL get through this... 
but I just wanted to remind us all that
not doing stuff is not the same as Resting
—and I fully trust that one of the gifts, if you will,
in this whole #QuarantineLife is that we now
have time to enter into His Rest...
and to find a Refreshing and a Healing...
to Find a little Peace and Joy!

“Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!” ~Romans 15:7 The Message

Until next time, Stay Home. Stay Safe. 

And remember to:

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 "PERSPECTIVE"!

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:

Anita Ojeda for #InspireMeMonday

Mary Geisen for #TellHisStory

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Sue Donaldson for #LetsHaveCoffee

We finally sat down at the mics last week and recorded a new episode for the Pod! Check out episode 030: Hello from the Inside (A Quarantine Episode.)  THE CHANGING OUR MINDS PODCAST is somewhat non-bloggy related and I co-host it with my all grown up Girlie, Kayelyn! We cover a lot of topics! Faith plays a part, sure... but it is more like joining us for coffee as we catch up on the couch or sitting at the table! We talk about whatever is on our minds and often reveal things that we used to think we knew... but we've changed our minds! We'd love to have you join us at the table or a comfy couch as we catch up over a cup of something yummy and share life together! We invite you to SUBSCRIBE here to have the Podcast sent to your preferred listening device so you won't miss a thing! Also, follow us on Facebook to join in on the conversations!