Happy Saturday. Time for Five Minute Friday.

Five Minute Friday is designed for five minutes of uninterrupted patter of the fingers representing the thoughts of the heart, soul and mind. Our fearless moderator Kate Motaugn  — with help from her Twitter friends — supplies us with the one word prompt and off we go! When done, we link up in the Community section at www.fiveminutefriday.com, then settle in to gently critique and soak in our neighbors’ work. I can’t wait to find new friends each week!

I invite you to join us in reading the wide interpretations and multi-genre presentations of the prompt. Or, better yet, try your hand! It’s five minutes (more or less) with few rules and no obligations. It’s fun (albeit sometimes challenging). It’s networking at its finest. We love meeting new friends!

To help inspire you to join our group, I’ve included testimonials from writers as outlined in Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat. This week, I’ll share some words from Katie’s heart.

“FMF is a hospitable, fun and caring group of writers. Not only have I been challenged to write off the cuff, but I’ve been inspired by the words of others and encouraged by the friendships that have been forged through this community.”

Amen!

This week’s prompt is WHY. The timer has been set, so it’s time to GO…

It’s an appropriate prompt this week. Just the other day I was commiserating about my lack of … well anything. And I quipped,  “The question is why. Why am I down? Why am I exhausted after doing nothing? Why? Why? Why?”

And I took the usual route — blaming my funk on everything from the weather to biorhythms.

Thinking about it however, the answer might simply be “Because.”

Remember when you had little kids around you and they began every sentence with “Why is…?” Remember trying to use logic — often over their apprehension level — and illustrations to answer those questions? And after the incessant questions, you finally blurted out “Just because!”

That must be what it is like for God as well. We’re always asking why. Why is there evil? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why? Why? Why?

And God answers [yes, He talks to me too] with illustrations I just  can’t comprehend. I might be able to justify it all with sin, but that doesn’t always answer the question, especially when it comes to bad things for good people. And it’s not much comfort when you say it’s God’s will or God’s plan. That may work in retrospect, but not in the moment.

But I can see God simply saying, in His gentlest Godly voice, “Just because. That’s all you have to know right now.”

It seems to me on I might have uttered that to my youguns a time or two. Who knew I was quoting God?

Yes, it’s “just because”. And you sometimes learn that when you stop …STOP

… asking questions and just spend some time in His arms. They are always open and welcoming.

For better or worse, that’s what I came up with this week.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. — Zig Ziglar