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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Finish. And how you must first begin. (FMF)

July 25, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 7 Comments

I’m all alone in a new-found favorite spot. Comfy purple chair. Earbuds streaming the soul-calming sounds of my Audrey Assad Station. Beside me sits a tall iced coffee infused with coconut and a slice of Hawaiian Banana Bread. Apparently, I’m wishing for an escape in more ways than one.

I’m not just here to read. Or to think or relax.

I’m here with a task. Something that I’ve known I had to finish for more than two months. Something for which the deadline is looming. But each time I sit and try to “knock it out,” several things loom larger than my responsibility.

My own inadequacy. My own “green-ness” at this. Some might call it stress-paralysis. My own fear that someone else could do it better. Someone else could say it more eloquently. Truthfully, I’m not very brave am I?

But here’s the thing.

It’s not always ALL about Bravery. Somedays it’s ALL ABOUT OBEDIENCE.

Today is that day.

Somedays you have to be brave, other days you just have to show up and be available.

Here is what I know. I know that when we are given tasks that seem too big for us, it is because they most certainly are. 

Tasks that are too big for us require that we allow our smallness to shrink back a bit and allow God to more clearly show His power. His strength. His might. His ABILITY to equip us where we feel ill-equipped.

But obedience requires the first step. Often the first step is all we know in the way of direction.

But let’s take it. Take the first step to begin in the direction God is nudging us.

Begin. And He will take care of the finishing. 

So happy to link up with my other Five Minute Friday Friends HERE! 

Summer Garden Vegetable Soup
4×4 for Declare

Comments

  1. Holly Barrett says

    July 25, 2014 at 11:37 am

    “Begin. And He will take care of the finishing.” So true. And I so needed to hear it today, Cynthia!! 🙂

    Reply
  2. angieryg says

    July 25, 2014 at 11:49 am

    Yes! When bravery and obedience meet, it is a beautiful thing! And now, it has me asking…what is this thing looming that you need to finish? 😉 I have a talk that I am preparing for India so as I peck away at letters and hear whispers from Him, I will pray for you as well!

    Reply
  3. karrileea says

    July 25, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    I love this! And I can’t help but keep looking at your adorable profile pix as I am reading and you are just too stinking cute! And this: “Here is what I know. I know that when we are given tasks that seem too big for us, it is because they most certainly are.” Oh Amen, my friend! Such a good reminder!

    Reply
  4. asmallbutmeaningfullife says

    July 25, 2014 at 1:41 pm

    Great reminder today. Visiting from FMF. Rosanne

    Reply
  5. Courtney says

    July 25, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    Yes! Sometimes, as someone else once said, we just have to do the next thing (in obedience!). Thanks for the reminder!

    Reply
  6. judith heaney says

    July 25, 2014 at 5:52 pm

    Your beautifully woven words provide a powerful reminder about what’s asked of us: take that first step. Begin.

    I love this line: “Somedays you have to be brave, other days you just have to show up and be available.” It doesn’t matter how brave you are if you don’t show up. And that is sometimes the bigger struggle – showing up, isn’t it. But when we do, God is able to do amazing things with our obedience.

    Thank you for these words today. So glad to discover them today through the fmf family <3

    Reply
  7. stoopingformanna says

    July 26, 2014 at 7:11 am

    Cynthia- Oh, why do we burden ourselves with the marathon when our first step is all is asks? This is a perfect word for me today. Thank you for sharing it and crafting it so beautifully here. Love it!

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
Merry Christmas from the Fam! { 👉🏻 swipe for Merry Christmas from the Fam! { 👉🏻 swipe for Stuckeys in their natural habitat.) 🎄🕯❤️✨
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