Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday writing prompt link-up!
If you’re new, you can click here to learn more about the link-up and how it works.
This week’s Five Minute Friday writing prompt is: AFFECTION
Setting a timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.
I recently shared about how my husband was invited to go to Cape Town to facilitate a farewell service for our dear pastor’s retirement from his role as a senior pastor at our former church. My husband has known him for 30 years and I’ve known him for 21, so it was a very special opportunity that simply could not be passed up.
He traveled with his business partner who had never been to South Africa before. On the day of the farewell service, I woke up at 3:30am Michigan time to livestream the service from afar. I also requested in advance for my husband’s business partner to take as many photos as possible at the celebratory luncheon afterwards, so I could get a better sense of what I had missed.
The service itself was so heartwarming and meaningful. Then later in the day, my solicited photographer sent me 47 photos of the “after-party”! 🙂
As I watched the service and scrolled through the photos, I had such a deep sense of affection in my heart for the people I saw on the screen. People I had done life with for the ten years I had lived in Cape Town. People I had laughed with, cried with, lost my mom with, raised my babies with.
It made me think a bit about how the Apostle Paul expressed his affection for many of the churches he ministered to:
As one example, in Philippians 1:8, he wrote to the Philippian church, “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
I could be wrong, but I think in this individualistic society that worships busyness, many of us have lost a similar sense of affection toward our church families and fellow believers today.
What changes do we need to make to get it back?
STOP.
+++
Join us with your own five-minute freewrite on the prompt, AFFECTION, in the link-up below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:
Affection’s something that we lack,
the world drowns out its sweet soft voice,
and the way to get it back
is to daily make the choice
to turn away from CNN,
from Fox News and Kimmel, too,
and it will be only then
that we can build this world anew
with love instead of acid hate,
with snarky comments left behind
to open wide bright Heaven’s gate
and let its balm flow through the mind
and if we commit to the Way
we’ll have, in time, a brighter day.
Connection and affection? One and the same? What about when your neighbor is super loud at midnight? Thank you for your faithfulness to write. I enjoy hearing your heart speak!!!
Connection and affection? One and the same? What about when your neighbor is super loud at midnight? Do I affect anything by calling security instead of walking over and asking them to turn it down? What if it’s a rental and I don’t even know them? Can we have affection without connection? Is that why I cannot feel the warmth of your embrace God?! Because I don’t know how to actually connect to you? Is that why it doesn’t feel that you are near? Lord how… Can we have affection without connection? What am I willing to “turn off,” like Kate and Andrew said? Is it more than turning off a show, putting down my phone? That’s step one. Step two is actually turning towards! Help me face people lord. Help me turn my heart to them. To tune into them and out of fear, out of Facebook, out of even religion! Help me open up and turn. Thank you for letting me share!