Jubilee's Jottings

            I wrote this when I was writing my first pitch article for the newspaper I currently write for.            It is hard to write am article about something you don’t know about. Firstly, you have to research your topic. Researching a topic is a rather tedious task, and different search questions give different results. This makes the process not only hard, but different websites can give you different results, especially when you are looking for facts.           I was writing a research essay on chocolate. When you go on the internet and search about it, there is enough information to write a book. What is the most interesting facts for my article? What do I want to say? I made an outline that seemed to immediately go into my subconscious brain, as I didn’t refer to it much after writing it, but I think I actually went off the outline for my topic.           The websites I read were exceedingly boring, most of them, and starting to write an interesting article from a

            The day is gray. The sun is hidden. The air is cold. The trees are bare. No birds can be seen. No squirrels frisk about, and my tidy room is as cheery inside as out.           I don’t want to write or do anything I know I should be doing. I would rather clean my bathroom than do what I need to do. My endless list of 5-minute- to-dos invites me to flee from solid, hard work. With my fingers to the keys,  I type away, looking for flutters of inspiration from the recesses of my mind, from the unloosing of the things at the forefront.           In my mind of imagination, I visit a day in the early past when the sun shone; the sky was blue. Squirrel one chased squirrel two and squirrel three brought up the rear. The wind was chilly, but the grass was green, the sun was bright, and the sky was blue.           Stacks upon stacks of linear bricks. Streaks upon streaks of rust on metal. Fog in the sky. Fog in my gears. Perhaps a little free writing is the oil I need

            A man took a horse that had  never been handled, never been trained and began working on it. He tied the filly to his saddle and stroked her face and neck, getting the filly to trust him. At first, all the filly needed to do was let her master touch her—to touch her sensitive areas. Slowly the filly began allowing the master to touch her. She stopped jerking away. She stopped pulling on the lead rope.           He worked on one side of the horse, and then the other: touching , rubbing, praising, and pushing the filly a little farther. She would trot alongside  and then the other. She would walk in circles. The master took a saddle blanket and began rubbing it on her neck. He rubbed it all over her back and her sensitive belly and rump. Finally,  he placed it on her back. He thumped the blanket. Eventually the filly remained calm.           A saddle was gently placed on her back. It was tied. The filly was made to walk and trot. The saddle was tightened. Then

       Freedom is the ability to control myself. It is the ability to administer self-discipline. Freedom gives me the chance to work hard. It is the way I learn my limits and how much I can give. Freedom is the choice to do right. It is the chance to know Christ as my Savior, the privilege of denying myself for His sake. Freedom is the promise of Heaven. Without Christ, I cannot know freedom.       Christ's freedom gives me the chance to stop and choose a better way.  His freedom gives me the comfort of knowing Someone wiser than I is overseeing my life. His freedom gives me a guidebook to order my life by. Freedom in Christ is to be tucked under His wings. It is to know the reality of love. But I can choose to not be free. I can choose bondage.  Bondage is the scope in which I find how much something else controls me. Bondage pushes me beyond my limits for the sake of fear. It does not allow me to give to others. Bondage makes the wrong choice look better than the right one,

  All is lifeless; All is brown-- Drip, Drop. The sky is foggy, The sun in shroud-- Chirp! Tweet! The trees are silent, The shrubs asleep-- Rustle, Rustle. The air is quiet, The treetops still--  Creak! Snap.

       Life is never predictable, but the goodness of God is. Life will throw you curve balls, but the grace of God will catch them while you get there. Life may splinter into a million shards, but the Rock of our Faith will hold us when everything else falls apart. Dreams may shatter, but the presence of God will become tangible so we know His love is not a dream. The peace of God is greater than the roar of present circumstances. The mercy of God is stronger than our frail, human faith. The blessings of God are present and animate when life seems to have taken a bad turn. To find God in the moment I must LIVE IN THE MOMENT.           This is not a cliché. It is a possible reality. Living in the moment means telling God when I am afraid. It is responding to His touch, even when His touch seems painful. Living in the moment is allowing God to restore, allowing God to bring His healing when I still want to struggle. It is allowing God to work when I don’t feel like I am able