Welcome to our weekly Five Minute Friday blog link-up, where we freewrite for five minutes flat on a one-word prompt.
If you’re new, you can learn more about the link-up here.
This week’s writing prompt is: UNKNOWN
GO.
This past week, our family took a somewhat spontaneous road trip. By “somewhat spontaneous” I mean that we only planned it about two weeks in advance, and by “road trip” I mean we drove 17 hours one way to a place we’d never been before.
At one point on our trip, my husband moved to the back seat to try to take a nap since he had done most of the driving and we still had a long way to go. My 12-year-old son was assigned the task of co-pilot, sitting in the front passenger seat to give me whatever I needed.
As we drove along, we came to a biggish city that also happened to have a fair amount of road construction going on. I don’t love driving anyway, but especially not in cities with multiple lanes of traffic driving at high speeds, and especially not in construction zones when the lines and lanes are not clearly marked, the bends are unnatural and unexpected, and the barriers on both sides of the road feel too close.
Plus, it was dark.
I was making noise about not enjoying myself, and my son asked gently, “Are you feeling stressed?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
I did not like driving in the unknown. Come to think of it, I don’t like the unknown, period . . . no matter what it is.
“You’re doing a good job,” my son reassured me.
A few days later when I was driving home from our local grocery store on a two-lane suburban road with the same son in the front seat, I realized I was not nervous at all. I knew this road, knew exactly where I was going.
It was the unknown I feared.
STOP.
My five minutes is up and I usually don’t add to my freewrite after my timer goes off, but I want to conclude with this thought:
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul said the following to the people of Athens:
“For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ . . . .” (Acts 17:23-28a, ESV).Â
Paul took the opportunity to introduce the people of Athens to the God they thought was unknown — the God of the Bible, who has made Himself known and near in the person of Jesus Christ.
We need not fear the unknown if we find ourselves in Him.
***
Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor’s blog to read their post and leave an encouraging comment.
I know the bright moon and the stars,
my rifle and my load.
I know the ruddy glow of Mars
but I do not know this road.
It wanders dim on out ahead
and soon is lost to sight.
How many troopers has it led
to a final futile fight?
What lurks out there, so close but hid,
what’s out there, hungry, roaming?
Things that our Lord has forbid?
Are there dragons in the gloaming?
Or is there just, as I pass by,
a still small voice, and starry sky?
I’m glad I’m not the only one who went a tad over five minutes this week ;). I love how your son offered just what you needed to hear as you faced the unknown. May we all look for opportunities to affirm those around us who seem afraid and unsure of themselves!
Amen! 🙂
As soon as I read the prompt on twitter, the very same verse came to mind. So grateful we can trust every unknown to our God, who bids us to come close and know Him.
Me too, Joanne! Me too. xx
Kate, the unknown is just so….unknown!!! Your boy was an encouraging co-pilot! Of course I’d love to know where you were off to. 17 hours is a long road trip. xo
Your sons quizzical yet affirming comments made me smile, reminded me of a 12-year-old I once had, too. And I’m right with you on the unknown. Such a scary thing aside the comforts of the known. Yet, what a lovely thing the mind of youth is, to sum it up so freely, “You’re doing a good job”.
It’s all part of the journey. You usually wrap up your thoughts in five minutes. Impressed. I’m all over the place … though I think FMF has made me more focused. Okay, only a tad. 🙂
Unknown: It is unknown to me right now what 2020 has in store for me. It is unknown to me what Christ have in mind for me to do. What my one for the year will be, one Scripture,and one pray will be for the year. It is unknown what my plans for the knew year will be but I know in my heart whatever Christ does in my life in 2020 will be good. It’s unknown what Christ has for my married as husband and wife this year. But I know that Christ is in my marriage.