It's 5-minute Friday in this final week of December 2011. After a year of profound changes globally and profound loss in my own family, I suspect that I am fresh out of profundity. However, with a prompt word like "Open," maybe I can at least manage some honest self-examination as a year draws to a close. I begin at 11:25 p.m.
What do you do when only one path is left open to you, and following it means you've officially voted with your feet?
Sometimes, when we feel we have to distance ourselves from something, we use gentle-sounding phrases like, "Don't worry; the door is always open." And yet, Robert Frost said that in life, "way leads on to way," and each of us in such a moment "doubted if I should ever come back."
A new year open before us. New opportunities. A time to reaffirm that to which we must cling as sacred, and to reexamine precisely what fits into that category. It is a smaller collection of non-negotiables, perhaps, than I have ever before in my life believed it to be.
I don't know what comes next. I want to be open to it. I don't want to be without anchors, without boundaries or limits.
I just don't want to be closed off. I need "the wisdom to know the difference." Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
11:30 on the dot.
I think I have "voted with my feet" on more than a few occassions myself. I love the way you put that. And I appreciate your open and willing heart for all that He has prepared for you. Lovely post.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post. It's was so simple, but so very deep and touching. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteand to embrace it all. Be it painful or joyful, to be embrace it openly!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like one of the stepping out in faith moments.
ReplyDeleteHello JNCL - I am joining your Read Your OWN Library Challenge but I can't figure out how to comment or link at the Challenge page. Do we just come back each month to share our progress? How do we know who else is participating?
Thanks for hosting!
Martha, there's a link to the sign up post for each month at the bottom of the Challenge page. Just click on the link, and sign up on the linky at the bottom of the post. Also, I send out notices on Twitter and Facebook each month as soon as I post the linky, so if you want to follow me on Twitter or "like" the blog on Facebook, you'll get word as soon as those posts go up.
ReplyDeleteBy-the-way, Martha, welcome to the challenge! Happy to have you along.
ReplyDelete