WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU… (Five Minute Friday: ‘Success’)

With the change in weather and obvious turn of the season to autumn this week, I had to face the fact that my tomatoes, so carefully and hopefully planted, were not going to ripen to their sweet scarlet destiny. There were plenty of fruit on the vines but they just weren’t grown to full size or ripeness. Not a gardening success this year.

And yet…

There’s that saying, isn’t there? ‘If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’

Well, in this case I made green tomato chutney*. Nigel Slater calls it saving them from ‘a fate worse than compost’. I only had enough for one jar’s worth (Why are all the recipes for over 2kg of tomatoes? Who has that much of a glut of unripe fruit?) but mine will still serve a few meals: bringing a sweet tang to a cheese sandwich; a new topping in a burger bun; even an additional depth of flavour to a stew.

Similarly, life often takes an unlooked for, unwanted turn – that job I applied for but didn’t get offered, the sudden death of a parent, a longed for holiday interrupted by illness. The disappointment of a future, short or long term, no longer achievable.

But it’s a bend in the road not a dead end.

We might need to review and rethink our hopes and plans. We might need to rethink our definition of success in life. We might need to make green tomato chutney instead of salad.

*Here’s the recipe I used: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/janes-green-tomato-chutney

Challenge (FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY)

Sometimes life sucks. Hopes, plans, routines – so easily derailed. The direction we thought we were heading in – the path suddenly crashes away into an abyss like in those adventure movies. We stand in shock and then face the fact that we have to divert, turn back, take the long route. And off we wearily tread. It’s the Mines of Moria for us.

Sometimes we, I run out of words. So I turn to others’ instead.

Here’s some that have helped recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fA35Ved-Y Even If by MercyMe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVHrkYBEgFM God’s Not Done With You by Tauren Wells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Otg-5p7qug Mended by Matthew West

And I reread and repeat the old truths to make them my own:

‘I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.’ (Romans 8. 38-39)

I don’t like or want these challenges but at least I don’t have to face them alone.

The START of the Day (Five Minute Friday)

It’s a glorious feeling: being woken up by just reaching the natural end of sleep and by the light – light that permeates even the heaviest curtains to whisper a good morning in my ears and still closed eyes.

I creep downstairs and put on the first coffee of the day.

But I’m called to the windows, drawn by that golden low light of early morning, spreading over the hillside opposite like honey, gilding all the houses and undergrowth with an inner glow. It’s like tea to a thirsty soul. So gorgeous, that I throw open the French doors to let more of it onto the house and my vision, even though this northwards facing slope is itself in shadow.

Perhaps it’s the contrast with yesterday evening: our hopes of a painterly sunset washed away by grey drizzle clouding the view like garden fleece. This morning the air is free of moisture and clear, so clear, as if the new day has wiped away the accumulated smears on its glasses.

There is a warm cool freshness as the year teeters on the edge between summer and autumn, the change of colour on the edges of the leaves gleaming in that same dawn radiance. And I can hear the chug and rat-a-tat-tat drumbeat and roll of boat engines in the harbour below, like a band leading the carnival parade just around the corner.

The light, the view pulls me forward onto the terrace. And I stand, coffee cup in hand, soaking it all in, noticing new and familiar details afresh: pinpoints of swaying pampas grass; a pirate flag; a little white and glass conservatory peeping out from between the greenery; the brightness of berried shrubs and dancing laundry on a line; the vividness of painted window frames against white walls; leftover raindrops from last night globuled on leaves on our patio.

Strange how it’s the low light that transforms like this – not the obvious overhead-illuminating-everything light but the catching-you-by-surprise playing-with-shadows light, that only comes at the start and end of days and years.

And I think of the mellow fragile beauty of the start and end of lives and see its echo.

The main feature of Five Minute Friday is our weekly blog link-up. Each week Kate Motaung provides a one-word prompt, and we all set our timers and write for five minutes flat, then post our writing on our respective blogs and link up our offerings on that week’s Five Minute Friday post. You can find more on this week’s prompt here: https://fiveminutefriday.com/2019/09/12/fmf-writing-prompt-link-up-start/

 

TESTIMONY (Five Minute Friday)

There’s a saying, isn’t there? ‘If being a Christian were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?’

Scary thought.

If I were in the dock, who would be my witnesses? I guess the key ones would be those closest to me, those who know me best, those who see how I behave every day.

My family certainly know about my faith and how integral it is to my life. They have seen over the years how it is at the core of my decision making and choices, opinions and priorities. They know I pray daily for them.

But they also know better than most how imperfect my faith is, how often I don’t live up to the standards my faith calls me to. Because they love me, they forgive me much.

And when I get it right, how much, I wonder, do they realise is down to God and not just my original character and upbringing? They didn’t know me before I became a Christian. Most of the people in my life now don’t. So how can they see what a difference Jesus has made to me?

I’m no evangelist. I am honest about my beliefs if people ask. But I don’t shout about it. And I am terribly aware of how often I get it wrong – my impatience, anger, or unkindness.

Called to the witness stand myself, I can only tell you that God is Who keeps me going when life feels overwhelming, gives me the means to grow as a person, and daily opens my eyes to the wonders and beauty of this world around me.

Sometimes He sends people to teach me these lessons. Sometimes circumstances show me. Sometimes a sentence in the Bible shouts His reassurance or direction at me. Sometimes as I write in my prayer journal to Him, the way becomes clear. Sometimes it’s like a gentle whisper in my head and a sense of peace as I follow.

This is my testimony.