Posted on March 31, 2016

by Kate Motaung

Happy weekend!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter! As we peer over the edge into a new month, I pray that April will be an ongoing reminder of resurrection and new life.

If you’re new to Five Minute Friday, welcome! Learn more about this fabulous, big-hearted community here!

This week we’re writing on the prompt:

 

 

Set a timer for five minutes, take a deep breath, and let’s …

GO.

One obvious difference about living in South Africa versus America is the amount of choice. In my ten years living in Cape Town, on every visit back to Michigan, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices thrust in my face.

One September in Cape Town, a black South African couple visited my husband and me for the weekend. When the husband woke up on Saturday morning and shuffled, sleepy-eyed into the kitchen, I bombarded him with questions. “Would you like coffee or tea? Milk and sugar? Eggs? Toast? Do you want porridge? Weetbix?”

The poor guy stared at me, eyes glazed over. Silent. “Kate!” my husband chided. “Just give the man some coffee and bread!”

He was unaccustomed to choice.

Sometimes I see myself in the same way — paralyzed by the options laid before me. I stand at a crossroads, and both paths reveal equal joy and disappointment. My feet are planted, unmoving. I glance left and right, unable to decide.

I wish God would just point a finger, “Go this way.”

Choice is not always a blessing.

The good news is, no matter which way I go, as long as it’s not contrary to His Word, my God goes right along with me. His sovereignty sustains me, covering over my missteps and turning them into my good.

 

STOP.

 

Thanks for being here! Leave your own five minutes of writing below! And don’t forget to click on over to the blog linked up before yours to leave some comment love!

Posted on March 24, 2016

by Kate Motaung

Hello! Happy Easter weekend!

So glad you’ve joined us for another round of Five Minute Friday!

Learn more about this fast-typing, flash-writing community here.

In case you missed it last week, I have two fun things to share with you: First,

We’re making a book!

 

 

March 31st is the deadline to submit the favorite Five Minute Friday post you’ve written to Susan Shipe at hopehearthome<at>gmail<dot>com.

 

Secondly, Crystal Stine is back with a new and improved Creative Basics course!

 

 

Starting April 4th, you can learn all about how to make amazing social media art to use online. This version includes daily videos to walk you through everything you learn!

Save the money you would spend attending a conference and get all the content in the comfort of your own home!

Register now for Creative Basics, starting April 4th!

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This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is: 

 

 

 

As we head into this Easter weekend, we pause to remember the horrific death of our Savior.

We pause to let the atrocities of our sin sink in.

We pause to contemplate the weight of our wrongs that kept Him hanging on the cross.

We pause in the silence of Saturday, and we wait.

But that’s not all. We don’t stay in our sadness. We’re not trapped in our despondency.

We’re not slaves to our regrets.

We have a secret. A secret that is the key to all happiness, the key to all joy. 

We know that Sunday is coming.

Sunday is coming, and Sunday is here. That new, glorious dawn where death has been erased, and life raises it’s arms in victory. The tomb is empty.

And because Jesus is alive, because He conquered the grave, death no longer has power.

Evil cannot win. 

And because He’s alive, because He conquered the grave, my own life is buried with Him and rises up in newness. In hope. In resurrection.

I once heard a story about D.L. Moody, who said, “One day you’ll read in the papers that D.L. Moody is dead. Don’t believe a word of it! At that moment, I’ll be more alive than I’ve ever been.”

Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

Live abundantly. Live alive.

 

Related Post: We are the Saturday people :: An Easter reflection from Kaitlyn Bouchillon

 

Psst .. one more thing — Don’t forget to share some comment love on the blog linked up before yours!

Have a blessed Easter weekend! He is alive!

Posted on March 21, 2016

by Kate Motaung

 

It’s my pleasure to welcome Kaitlyn Bouchillon to this space today. Kaitlyn is a member of the Five Minute Friday community, and we even got to meet in person at the Five Minute Friday retreat in Nashville in 2015! Kaitlyn is the real deal. So full of wisdom and genuine encouragement.

Her brand new book, Even If Not: Living, Loving, and Learning in the In Between, is now available! Thank you, Kaitlyn, for sharing these uplifting words of truth with us today!

 

 

With Easter approaching, I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about those three important days.

Good Friday: The very worst, terrible, horrific and dark day in history.

Saturday: The in between of silence and confusion.

Sunday: The resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of promises-kept, the most joyful day known to man.

The more I sit and think about these days, the more I find myself attaching certain times of my life to each one.

A brain tumor diagnosis at age seventeen? Good Friday.

Being declared cancer-free? Sunday.

Spiritual warfare and depression? Good Friday.

Seeing a relationship reconcile after four years of unanswered prayers? Sunday.

But most of the time, if I’m being honest, I’m living in a Saturday season. I’m somewhere in between darkness and light, questions and answers. I’m holding onto what I believe to be true and I have faith that He will remain faithful, and yet my life feels chaotic, relationships are difficult, my to-do list is miles long and I forget how this story is going to end.

We know that our Savior is victorious but even still, Saturday exists. There is silence. There is confusion. There is weeping and we are full of questions because everything has changed so very unexpectedly. What then? Where do we turn in the in between?

Because most of us, if we got real honest with ourselves, would say that we are the Saturday people, a mixture of grief and hope walking toward an uncertain tomorrow.

And yet, Sunday is coming. It probably won’t look like what we’re imagining, but our Savior is a promise-keeping promise-maker.

We can trust the unknown of the future to the God we know is authoring its pages.

 

 

 

That doesn’t make it brighter or happier, I know. But, it does give us a reason to hold onto Hope.

Jesus is good and gracious and mighty and merciful. He is power and promise and even in the times that feel wild and vast and unsure, He is there. He is the God of Already’s even when we’re in the thick of it.

 

 

We will walk through seasons of Good Fridays and we will live most of our life in an in between, clinging to hope and truth while believing that Sunday is just around the corner. And it is. Sunday is coming because Jesus is coming back for us. And so we will hold tight to Hope, trusting that the One writing the story of our lives will not make one single mistake. We will be the Saturday people who look expectedly toward Sunday.

 

 

Lord, may we be faithful in this in between as You have been faithful to us in every season. Thank You for coming for us, choosing to walk with us, and promising to return again. In the dead of night, You slipped into the world You made. You stepped into the darkness and promised to be the Light. In every in between, as we live with questions and trust that You’re the answer, please help us to keep our eyes on You, giving You glory in every season.

 

Psst … The “He Is There” print is a free download {one of many!} for Kaitlyn’s blog subscribers.