MEND

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--MEND

Five minutes to free-write about it

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There is so much in my life right now that needs mending. Mending that only God can bring about. 

The prompt made me think of Kintsugi, which made me think of how God fills the cracks of our imperfections and failures with His amazing grace so our scars can become testimonies that encourage others and give them hope.

(For those of you who don't know what Kintsugi is, it's a form of Japanese art that uses gold to mend broken pieces of pottery instead of throwing them out, turning them into objects that are even more beautiful and valuable than they were before.)

This season has been a challenging time of learning to fully trust the Lord and keep my focus on today--sometimes just this moment--instead of projecting and worrying about what may or may not happen down the road. 

Despite all the ways He has manifested His trustworthiness, I have been a slow learner. And yet, He has continued to be patient and longsuffering, and to never give up on me, even though I would have given up on myself long ago. 

Among the sources He has used to encourage me, are Brant Hansen's books. Especially the one I just finished reading--Life is Hard. God is Good. Let's Dance. One of its main premises is that God is in control, so we have nothing to fear. The future is not my department. My deal is to keep my focus on today's stuff.

Not that it's anything new I haven't heard before, but sometimes it takes hearing the same thing over and over in slightly different ways to have it finally sink in and take root (or at least that's how it works for me).

Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they? . . . Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  (Matthew 6:26, 34a)

Some other good reminders in the book that I'm really, really trying to take to heart and put into practice are that I don't need to know the answers to everything. I just need to trust God for everything, and do my thing and let Him do His thing. 

Hansen exhorts us to bring what we have to Jesus and see what Jesus can do with it, and that is exactly what I'm purposing to do.  

P.S. Among other things, I've been suffering from writer's block, so to be honest, this post has taken me quite a bit longer than five minutes to write.