Five Minute Friday - In Real Life

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. Go a little overboard encouraging the writer who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:

in real life…

Go!

So today's prompt is "in real life". If you go to the Gypsy Mama's page (click link above), you will get details about a way for us girls to link up in real life next April. It sounds fun and I think I will probably participate in some way.

In real life... so I did not win the free trip to the Writers' Retreat at Laity Lodge. But thanks to some gracious people, I will still be able to go. So, "in real life", I am going to get to meet some amazing Christian bloggers, book authors, editors, publishers, some beginners like me (hopefully) and be part of a community. And that is something I crave: community. I've been locked away too long in the little corner of this room with depression (ongoing struggle) and grief (since we lost Mom in March). I need to get out and meet other people who are interested in doing the same thing that I have evidently developed a passion for. I'm looking forward to meeting all of these people and maybe even getting some hugs.

In real life, I would also like to meet some new online friends of mine. There are only a few of us (5? 6?), but we have developed such a camaraderie. It also really feels like we do "church" together online. We are all seeking Jesus and we talk about how we find Him in our lives. We share some worship too. So I'm holding out that God will give us the opportunity to meet in real life and love on each other even more than we do online.

So that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Stop.

Now let's go see what other people who are linking up at the Gypsy Mama have to say in five minutes!

As Nervous As...

I'm not usually inclined to post twice in one day, but there is just something pushing at me so hard...

I was in a gathering tonight where there was plenty of joking going on. There was a lot of love in the room and the company was good. However, there was a comment made that caught me up short and it was hard to concentrate after I heard it.

Let me qualify this by saying that the man who said this was just trying to make a point and he would be truly devastated if he thought he had actually hurt someone. There was at least one person in the room who could have gotten offended, but she didn't seem affected by it.

So what did he say?

"When your as nervous as a whore in church."

Everyone laughed and things kept flowing. But I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Of all the people who should be nervous in church, a whore isn't one of them. Jesus came for the lost. He ate with prostitutes and tax collectors (hard to say which was reviled more in Jesus' day). He sought out those who were cast out by their society. So when I am in church worshipping Him, why should they be nervous about joining me there?

Just something I'm thinking about...