I've been doing some other bits for Sunday too, so have reached practically bedtime in a very grumpy mood. My own fault. I know perfectly well that a whole day at the desk is a recipe for disaster...Thankfully I've some teaching tomorrow, and no sermon prep this weekend, so escape is imminent.
Meanwhile, there IS this whole extra day, and Songbird in tandem with Will Smama have a Friday Five dedicated to the gentle art of leaping.
The Friday Five...leap year edition!
It's Leap Day!! Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.Tell us about a time you:
1. Leapt before looked:
Ummm....I hate making decisions (who knows where the road not taken might lead, after all?) so this happens rarely. I don't think we looked very hard at the reality when we left London for a run down farmhouse in small Cotswold village - but I'd dreamed the rural idyll dream for so long that in one way we'd done nothing but look before the leap came. But following my heart can often look very much like leaping without thought...because the official evidence just isn't part of my decision making process.
2. Leapt to a conclusion:
ALL THE TIME! Who would ever go from A through B and C when they could instead head straight for Z - even if the actual destination is somewhere around G? A child late home? Road accident for sure. Good friend with headache? that'll be the brain tumour then...WonderfulVicar quiet after I've preached? he's trying to decide how best to tell me that I'm about to be tried for heresy....oh, and of course I know the end of LCM's sentence before he's got half way through it (Actually I generally do, but he really doesn't like my completing it for him)
3. Took a Leap of Faith: despite loving and cherishing Mike Yaconelli's work, including "Jump first, fear later" I am all too prone to the opposite approach. I dithered around in the "what ifs" for a long time before obeying the call to ministry...I opted for obedience in bite sized pieces, shifting only gradually from Reader ministry to consider the faint possibility of non stipendiary priesthood...finally landing where I needed to be only 2 years before I was actually ordained. God is incredibly patient, and indeed generous - as He continues to give me a very clear vision of where he wants me, even as I stand havering on the brink refusing point blank to trust and go. O
4. Took a literal Leap. Me? Leap? No, I come down as decorously as possible, with an eye to likely potholes and places to turn my ankle or jolt my back. I'm distressingly middle aged in this respect...falling off Hattie Gandhi's horse a couple of years ago taught me that I'm well past the stage when I could hope to bounce - so I'd rather not leap in case of coming down hard.
5. And finally, what might you be faced with leaping in the coming year?
In just a month I'll confront the reality of my first Responsibility Post - a transition which someone compared to leaving school one day as a head prefect and coming in next morning as the Head teacher. I hope that's a slight exaggeration, but I suspect not - so that will surely satisfy any leaping urges I have for the foreseeable future.
Which, of course, brings me to the psalm : with the help of my God, I SHALL leap over the wall...but please, does anyone have a trampoline?
2 comments:
Heavens! I think just like your #2. I think we are simply creative.
We must be sisters separated at birth. I can relate to your answers in so many ways. I love Mike Yaconelli (was at a conference with him a few weeks before he died) and am about to make a huge leap in responsibility myself. Blessings to you!
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