Unexpected Hero {five-minute Friday}
I've been trying to accept challenges lately. There have been those thrust upon me in life and those that I have chosen to pursue. This five-minute Friday post represents the latter.
If you're unfamiliar with five-minute Fridays, all you need to know is that there is a prompt, you write for five minutes, edit extremely minimally, and then publish.
This may be my worst nightmare.
Below you'll find a piece I wrote for the prompt: Hero.
Yes, that's it.
This is what it looks like when I write for a few minutes with no prior planning. This is what brave looks like for me today.
...
I like the idea of a hero.
There is something compelling about Snow White going about her business, wishing for someone she could love as he rides up on a white steed.
But at the same time, I struggle with the creepy factor here, too. It doesn’t work like that, does it? “Oh, you look like my hero, I suppose I should fall in love with you.”
Lately, I’ve been thinking about a more practical hero, even as I’ve been wrestling with what that means for this fledgling Jesus Feminist. I want a hero, for sure, but I want to be one as well.
I’ve always fought against the word “heroine” for one thing, I pronounce it like “heroin” which just feels wrong. A heroine is strong and bold, but she is not a drug, not overpowering of the senses and addictive like that wordplay suggests.
But I’m human.
There, I’ve said it.
Sometimes a little rescue would be really nice.
I think that it’s likely that the Jewish people felt the same way as they longed for a Messiah. Jesus came, and He wasn’t what they expected. I understand that, because He is seldom what I expect either.
Lately, I’ve been asking Him to come. After years of the same questions, I have (almost) completely stopped asking Him to do things my way, which is good, because He doesn’t and I’m far more able to see what He really is doing that way.
I was reading in an Advent devotional by Enuma Okoro, this December, that we ask Jesus to come because He always does.
I love that thought.
I love the idea of the Jesus who always comes, outside of our timetable, our directions and specific requests. When I’m honest, that’s the Jesus that I really want to come anyway. Even when, like John the Baptist, I find myself asking: “Are you the one, or should I expect someone else?”
For more five-minute Fridays on this prompt click here.