FMF: Still

Before they call I will answer;

while they are still speaking I will hear.

(Isaiah 65:24, NIV)


It’s been a while since I’ve been able to participate in a five minute Friday writing session. To be honest, I’ve been struggling with energy, depression, and the ability to set aside enough time to write for even five minutes each week. But when I saw the prompt for today and thought about it in context of the verse above, I knew I needed to write. More than that I knew I wanted to write because I wanted to proclaim to anyone who might read this that God answers prayer.

It’s not a topic that I’ve often felt so strongly about. In fact, about two weeks ago I found myself confessing to a friend that even though I believe in prayer, my actions are such that it appears I don’t. Simply put, I don’t pray nearly as much as I want you.

A few days ago, on a dark, cold Monday morning, I found myself struggling to get out of bed and get ready for my class. I finally did, however, I didn’t realize I was running about 20 minutes late. I got in the car immediately and began to drive as quickly as I could to my school. As I drove my prayers were more than just a request that God would get me there on time. I believed that God would get me there at just the right time. In fact, I believe I uttered those exact words: I trust that You will get me there at the right time.

When I pulled up to class I was surprised to see everyone standing outside of our door. For reasons we did not yet know, the door would not open. The professor had called security to open it. When they were finally able to, we all discovered that maintenance had been doing work on the door and had removed the batteries from the keypad lock. Long before I even utter my prayers to God, He had set in motion events that would ensure I got to class at just the right time.

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FMF: City

“Also tell this to the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: I will let you choose to live or die. Anyone who stays in Jerusalem will die in war or from hunger or from a terrible disease. But anyone who goes out of Jerusalem and surrenders to the Babylonians who are attacking you will live. Anyone who leaves the city will save his life as if it were a prize won in war."

(Jeremiah 21:8-9, NCV)

Surrender!  This was essentially the message given to the believers in Jerusalem from God.  I'm sure it must have made little sense to them.  Why would God want them to leave their city?  This was the land that God had given to them.  It was where they had raised their families, and where generations before them had also raised their families.  It was where the temple was, and so it was where God was.

But God told them to choose: stay and die or go and live.

God sometimes presents us with options we don't like.  They don't make sense and, sometimes, seem totally counterintuitive.

Like those early believers, God is destroying old ways for new ways.  The coming exile would help the believers refocus their beliefs.  If you read the other prophetic writing from this time, you will learn that the believers weren't behaving the way they were supposed to.  In fact, at one point, God tells them they are worse than their non-believing neighbors.  Ouch!

So what are the cities that God is asking me to abandon in my life?  What things I have always done that somewhere along the line warped into something ungodly?  I'm sure I can't fully investigate that in the five minutes I am spending here today, but I pray God always give me enough wisdome and faith to choose life.

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FMF: Desperate

“Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.”
Psalm 79:8-9, NIV

At some point we've probably all felt we were in desperate need.  While that sentiment is subjective, it's pretty easy to agree with the psalmist if you read the entirety of Psalm 79.  He and his people were in desperate need.

But there is something that stands out to me about his cry for help.  Not only does he ask God to "deliver him" as most of us would, he also asks God to forgive him. It's a beautiful moment of responsibility: I'm sure I've done something wrong, God, but only you can make it right.

The other thing I notice is that his cry for help is not for his own sake, not even for the sake of his people, but "for [God's] name's sake." It reminds me of Moses reasoning with God in the desert: Everyone's going to think you brought us out here to kill us.

I don't know about you, but too often I ask God only for the things that benefit me.  Help me pay this bill so I can later spend money on something fun.  Help me lose ten pounds so I can look really good when I go to that event.  Help me do well on this project so I can seem important. May I learn to look at things differently.  May all things I do be done for the glory of God.

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FMF: Order

For He will give His angels orders concerning you,

To protect you in all your ways.
(Psalm 91:11, NASB)

There is a wonderful older woman in my church named Carol.  Carol is very private.  She is concervative and proper.  She is full of love.  She cares deeply about the people in her life.  Often when I talk to her, she breaks into prayer as part of her normal conversation.  God's love flows out of her like an artesian spring.

Psalm 91 is key scripture in her life.  She has told me on many occasions that she is praying it over my family.  For our safety.  For our well being.  That the angels would protect us.

And honestly, I just kind of smile and nod when she talks about angels.

I was always more interested in Scripture like that which is in the later verses of Psalm 91, which talk about God saving me and being near me. When I was a teenager and it seemed like every Christian mother I knew was watching Touched by an Angel, my pastor once said he'd rather be touched by Jesus.  That always resignated with me.

But, the truth is, angels are a part of God's plan.  I don't like writing about things I don't understand.  Let me just say it here, I don't understand angels.

Scripture proclaims that God has ordered His angels to protect me in all my ways.  So, I trust in that promise.  Whether I see them or understand them, I am thankful for them.  God's ways are so much bigger than my ways.

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FMF: Summer

Hands that don’t want to work make you poor.
But hands that work hard bring wealth to you.
A child who gathers crops in summer is wise.
But a child who sleeps at harvest time brings shame.
(Proverbs 10:4-5, NIRV)

"What do you plan to do this summer?" she asked me.

"As little as possible," I told her with a laugh.

And it was true. After a semester of working two part time jobs and taking a near-full load of classes, I needed a little time to rest and prepare for the fall. For many of us, not just students, Summer is the time we cherish most because we are able to do just that.

However, in agriculutural societies, like the one in which the Biblical writer of Proverbs lived, summer was a time of work. You can only gather crops when the crops are ready. They don't wait for you to want to work, and so your schedule revolves around the harvest's schedule.

There's a line from a hymn I sometimes find myself singing: "Bringing in the sheaves, // Bringing in the sheaves, // We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves."

(Sheaves, in case you do not know, are bundles of grain. I had to look it up too.)

In my spiritual life, there are some things that can only happen at certain times. Perhaps I will never encounter another person or have the same opportunity to extend God's grace in a situation.

As God's children, it is wise to work when the harvest is available.

The only question that remains is will we rejoice as we bring in the sheaves?

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FMF: Deserve

“All my grandfather’s descendants deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table. So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?”
(2 Samuel 19:28, NIV)

Years after David had taken begun his rule over God's people, he thought back to his friend, Jonathan, whose father, Saul, was the king.   Jonathan and Saul had both died in battle, and it appeared that their entire lineage was now dead too.

One day David found himself thinking of his old friend, and he asked his servant if anyone was still alive in their family so that he could should them God's kindness (2 Samuel 9:3).

This, in and of itself, is convicting to me.  Too often, I limit my willingness to love people to when it is convenient for me.  David, however, went searching for someone to love in the same way God had loved him.  Eventually he found Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth had lost his ability to walk when a caretaker dropped him in the same siege that had killed Jonathan and Saul. When Mephibosheth was brought before David, he did not condemn him, but rather restore him.  He gave him land, status, and most importantly, acceptance.  We read that Mephibosheth ate at David's table forever.

God wants to restore us as well.  Like Mephibosheth, life has left us broken, but God wants to be kind to us. Allow yourself to be carried to God's table today.

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FMF: Quiet

“If you keep quiet at this time, someone else will help and save the Jewish people, but you and your father’s family will all die. And who knows, you may have been chosen queen for just such a time as this.”
(Esther 4:14, NCV)

I sometimes forget God uses the unlikely to accomplish His will.  What a great reminder because, honestly, most of the time I wouldn't choose me for my own team.  But God sees people for their heart, and He places them in places that give them opportunity.

Esther was raised by her uncle, and she was chosen for a nationwide search for a new queen after the previous queen had been killed by her husband.  You see, the king was afraid that his wife would empower wives and create marital unrest, so he had her taken care of. Is it any wonder that that Esther's uncle, Mordecai, told her not to tell anyone in the royal palace that she was a God-follower (Esther 2:10).

Yet time passed and the believers found themselves in a precarious situation, one that would mean the end to their people. Including Mordecai.  Including Esther.  And, so, it was Mordecai again who instructed Esther to speak up.

In Eccesiastes 3 we are reminded that there is a time and a season for everything.  Sometimes we speak.  Sometimes we refrain. May God give us the wisdom to know when to do each, and like Esther, may many people be saved as a result.

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FMF: Lift

When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out.  Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out.  At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out.

(Numbers 9:19-23a, NIV)

In trying to follow God's will for my life, I have found that He has sometimes led me places I don't entirely love.  I have remained at jobs for longer than I wanted because that was how God was providing for my family during those days. I have delayed from doing things I felt I should do because there was no way for it to happen, and then one day, God made a way. God's timing doesn't always make sense. Why did the Israelites camp some places only one night and camp other places for longer periods of time?

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter why.  It's not too different from young children who bombard their parents with "but whyyyyyyy?"

Because.

God's "because" doesn't give me the warm fuzzy feeling I want from my faith, but I don't recall reading about warm fuzzies in scripture.

And in Numbers 9, we see the mysterious nature of God.  The God who sometimes settles His Spirit and sometimes lifts it up.  It is our job to keep watching.  And to follow.

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FMF: Disagree

Stay away from foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they grow into quarrels. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient. The Lord’s servant must gently teach those who disagree. Then maybe God will let them change their minds so they can accept the truth. And they may wake up and escape from the trap of the devil, who catches them to do what he wants. (2 Timothy 2:23-26, NCV)

I'm graduating college today.  Well, as much as any one "graduates" in a school district that is still closed for the pandemic. One of the most important things I've learned over the past two years is to agree-to-disagree with others in my educational community.  Sometimes I disagreed with classmates on trivial things.  Did they matter?  No, so it was easy to let it go while getting to know them. Other times, disagreements were more substantial.  I'll never forget the professor who taught adamently against racism and in the same class said that "Mexicans like Impalas."  Did I disagree with her blind hypocrisy?  Absolutely.  Was I ever going to change her?  Never.

Yet, when it comes to matters of my faith community, the agree-to-disagree situation is more challenging. In Paul's letter to Timothy it's clear that he's not talking about trivial things; he's talking about important issues that believers were letting the devil use to "gain a foothold"  in their spiritual walks, as Paul writes in Ephesians 4.  Paul doesn't tell the leaders to argue with them until they realize the error of their ways. His instructions are to be gentle.  To be kind.  To be patient.  To let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit does becuase only God would be able to let them see the truth.

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FMF: Slow

Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

But the Lord said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I Myself will be with your mouth, and instruct you in what you are to say.”

(Exodus 4:10-12, NASB)


I've often wondered what was wrong with Moses.  Did he have a stutter?  A stammer?  A lisp?  Coming from a family familiar with speech delays, it's been a quality of Moses that I've considered more than once.

When my sister was about three, she saw a speech therapist.  My family cherishes a cassette tape they have of her singing.  What family wouldn't cherish a little child singing at that age?  Did it matter that the sounds weren't exact?  Absolutely not.  It was endearing.

I myself struggled with pronunciation when I was small.  It wasn't yellow; it was yeh-whoa.  It wasn't a cheeseburger; it was a chee-buh-guh.

And when I became a parent, I discovered that both of my sons needed help with language.  When my oldest saw a speech therapist, she emphasized how much he spoke.  That wasn't news to me!  He still loves to talk.  A lot.

But with any of us - my sons, me, my sister, Moses - what was wrong with us?

In a word: Nothing.

For whatever reason, this was how God made us.

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For another speech therapy anecdote, you can read about my son's first session here: Ka- Ka- King.

FMF: She

She speaks wise words and teaches others to be kind.
(Proverbs 31:26, NCV)


She cleans the house with bleach each week

to take her back in time.
When things were simple and she swam

but hated the finish line.

She likes the smell of cigarettes

but has never smoked a cig.
It reminds her of her auntie's smell
she remembers as a kid.

She plants things in her garden

though she doubts that they will grow.

Because as a child a concrete yard

was all she had to know.

She'd still hide in a cowboy hat

if she thought that it could be

That she'd be invited.

She is trying. She is me.

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FMF: Possible

"But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

(Mark 9:22b-24, NIV)

The man presented his sick child to the disciples, and at first his case seemed futile.  Even the disciples could not call out the spirit that caused the child to convulse, sometimes even fall in the fire.  Enter Jesus.  The situation was admittedly tense.  First, He rebukes His disciples, calling them an "unbelieving generation."  Ouch.  But, then, oh blessed moment, He calls for the child to be brought to Him.

The father cries out to Jesus.  He wants Jesus to take pity on His son if there's any way to heal him.

Jesus confirms, "If?"  Jesus clarifies: Jesus can't just do anything. He can do everything.  It's a matter of the father's faith.

The word faith in the original language is used both sacredly (God given faith) and secularly (convincing oneself).  Linguists look to the context to understand what kind of faith is intended?

I am certainly no linguist, but it seems like the father addresses both of these faiths.  His cry to Jesus is this: I have done everything in my power to believe, so help me to believe with the faith that only God can give.

If that is what is required, than perhaps I should pray less to be fixed and pray more to be faithed.

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FMF: Once

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.... so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid.” (Zechariah 8:4-5,15, NIV)

I've been thinking about mourning lately.  I didn't realize that might be strange until I just typed those words.  Mostly, I've been thinking that we (and when I say "we" I mostly mean "I") don't know how to mourn properly.  We don't let ourselves feel the depth of our pain, but, perhaps more concerning, we don't know how to move in an out of periods of mourning.

The prophet Zechariah spoke to the believers in exile.  I must admit, I have not studied the exile as much as I have studied some other periods of Biblical history.  However, I do know that the exile ended.  Eventually, the believers moved back to their beloved city and walked its streets once again.

The prophet promised that the return from exile would bring blessing to the believers.  Their times of fasting would become times of celebrations.  Love and justice would rule their city.  People would follow them to experience the same blessing they saw in the lives of the believers.

Seeing our streets filled once again may be a concept many of us relate to more than we did a year ago.  We long to leave the safety of our homes and begin to do life out in our home towns, to see the elderly with their canes, and to hear the young playing again. While I feel that longing for my physical life, perhaps I feel it more in my spiritual lives.

Oh, God, allow us to return from our spiritual exile and do not let us fear Your blessing.

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FMF: Sunrise

“If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed." (Exodus 22:2-3, NIV)

This is not a political statement.

Thank you for not misconstruing this post.

What does the sunrise change? If you were an Israelite living in the time of Moses, everything. According to law of Exodus, it determined the guilt in your actions. Think about this way: In the safety of the light, you could see who was breaking in.  Your neighbors were likely awake to answer your call for help. It is not the same in the dark.  The light changes everything.

In our faith, we also have a spiritual sunrise. Lots of them. My denomination calls that process sanctification. It is the continual process of the Holy Spirit revealing to each believer what is right.  At certain points what was once justifiable no longer is. It is like James says, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." (James 4:17, NIV)

And we don't all get there at the same time. Maybe that is why God tells us not to be careful in issuing judgement. We will never have adequate information to make the right decision in all cases.  We may get some right, but we'll definitely get some wrong too. So we are warned to judge carefully, to confirm if the sun has risen for the person standing before us.

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FMF: Fix

Are you waiting for God to fix something?  Keep waiting.

I know those aren't the warm and fuzzy words of comfort you might have expected, but it's the answer God has given me for now.  And it's a hard answer because waiting is hard.

In the book of Exodus, the Israelites had escaped Egypt with urgency at God's prompting. They left so quickly they couldn't even let their bread rise.  Yet they found themselves at the Red Sea, again at God's prompting, with an army quickly coming upon them.  What was God's answer?

Well, you Bible scholars may have jumped ahead of yourself.  Did you say that God split the Red Sea?  Yes, He did, but look at when He did it:

Then Moses held his hand over the sea. All that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind, making the sea become dry ground. The water was split, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry land, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22, NCV)

They waited all night.

The Israelites were exactly where God wanted them to be, but God told them to wait.  Moses held his hands out all night as the waters were prepared for their crossing.  The miracle took some time.

We often expect miracles to happen immediately.

We want that new job today.

We want that long hoped for child today.

We want our friend's illness to be healed today.

We want that addiction to subside today.

We want that miracle today.

Friends, it just doesn't always work that way.

Sometimes we have to wait through the night before we see the miracle.

So, keep waiting.

It is not yet time for the message to come true, but that time is coming soon; the message will come true. It may seem like a long time, but be patient and wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not be delayed. (Habakkuk 2:3, NCV)

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FMF: Conclude

          At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
(John 7:25-27, NIV)

          Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
          The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes."
(John 9:28-30, NIV)

We've all been there, playing a mental game of chess and we've move three steps beyond what is actually happening. We jump to conclusions so fast we should get a gold medal.  Please tell me I'm not the only one.  In the book of John an interesting juxtaposition exists between two groups of people who conclude who Jesus is.  In John 7, the people of Jerusalem decide Jesus is not the Messiah because they know where Jesus came from.  Two chapters later, in John 9, the Pharisees conclude that Jesus is not the Messiah because they don't know where He came from.  As it was in John, so it is for us.  When it comes to God, we rarely know the entire story.  Even when we know a lot, we may lack sufficient knowledge to understand its significance. God is up to something that we could not guess.  He does things bigger and better than we can imagine.  So as we conclude 2020, I tip my hat to God for filling this years with things that we couldn't have imagined, and I pray that He allows me to retire from my Olympic caliber spiritual high jumping career.



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FMF: Beyond

Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. (Genesis 41:49, NIV)

It's peace week here in the Advent* world, so it's only fitting that the Five Minute Friday prompt would be "Beyond." This week many believers have studied peace beyond understanding (Philippians 4:7).  It's a hard concept for many, myself included.  I often think that God's peace is for my benefit.  In part, of course, it is.  God loves His children and does not want us to be troubled (John 14:27), but God's peace is not like the world's peace.

In the story of Joseph, the peace given to him - through enslavement, imprisonment, and ultimately success - was not so that he had a fat resume or felt good about himself when he laid his head down at night.  In Genesis 50:20 Joseph reveals what he himself could only have learned from God: His difficulties and his successes were intended by God to save many lives.  Knowing that must have allowed Joseph peace.

If we, like Joseph, know that God intends good for us - even when others mean harm - we too can experience His peace.

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*You can read my 2020 Advent reflections by starting with this post here: 33 DAYS AND COUNTING.

FMF: Present

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11, NIV)

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6, NIV)

On a table in my living room sit two pieces of art created by kids.  Last year, my older son presented me with ceramic bowls he made in a pottery class, and a few years before that my younger son presented me with a wire sculpture he made. They are both blue, and they were both presented to me as gifts, but they bear no other similarities.

In the old testament, believers were given precise instructions as to what they were to present to God.  Grain, oil, and animals were some of the items presented to God.  But even then, the law made allowances. If a person did not have one thing, another could be presented to God in its place.

Though the way we make offerings to God has changed, He still only expects us to present Him with what we have.  Like my children, God does not compare our gifts to others' gifts.  I would not have criticized my son's sculpture because it was not a bowl any more than I would have rejected my other son's bowl because it was not a sculpture. The beauty of giving to God is that He only asks us to present to Him what He has already given to us.

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FMF: Grateful

...and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.

(1 Thessalonians 5:18, NCV)

Pies are a terrible American tradition. There are too many ways they can go wrong. Yesterday, as my friend cut into my family's traditional cranberry pie, she remarked how it reminded her of crème brulee. You know, crunchy on the top and wet underneath. I assure you, it was not suppose to be like that.

So I did the only thing I knew to do.  I grabbed that pie and threw it back in the oven, and then I waited - impatiently - until finally, it was as good as it was going to get.  To be honest, I'm not sure if I even made it better.  It was still soft in the center, but now the edges were burnt.

Even though it wasn't the way I'd envisioned it, it was pie time.  My #nailedit worthy pie returned to its spot among the perfectly executed classics: apple, pecan, and pumpkin. Yes, we had four pie varietals at my house yesterday.

This year I struggled with Thanksgiving.  I always struggle with holiday, but this year was especially hard.  Just like my cranberry pie, too many things feel raw in the middle and burnt on the edges. But this is what I have to work with. I pray that, like my cranberry pie, God allows me to be grateful for the good parts of life instead of focusing on the rest.

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FMF: Grief

Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy! Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.
(John 16:20-22, NASB)


Christians do not mourn like the rest of the world.  No where in Scripture is that more evident, than in John 16.  Jesus tells his disciples that He will be leaving them, something they could not understand.  Jesus moves beyond trying to explain what will happen to how they will feel.  They would mourn even though the world would rejoice.  However, for those disciples and for the modern believer, there is hope in grief because we know the sorrow will not last.  There will come a day when we are reunited with Christ and we experience a joy that cannot be taken from us.

Earthly joy is often limited.  We might be happy about something that happens, but we restrain ourselves because we don't want to lose sight of reality.  Or, we understand that something that caused us joy may have caused someone else grief.  The last year has been a time of balanced joy and grief for many.  One day we're jumping with joy and the next day we're punched in the face by grief.  Some times those days were the same days.

If our faith is secure in Christ, we are able to push through the pain (pun intended) like a woman in labor to the beauty that will soon be ours: Not just any child, but the Christ Child in all His glory.



This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.