I have always had the desire to put the words on paper (okay, the screen). So I’m here because I believe in the Five Minute Friday exercise and the community of writers I have come to know as virtual friends.

I don’t have to tell you the drill — I’ve done that many times over — but there is something different. The link is on Facebook at fiveminutefriday.com. I hope to see some of you there.

As I’ve been doing, here’s Kim’s take on the value of the exercise, taken from snippets found in Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat as an added inducement to join in.

“FMF has been a desperately-needed community to me when I had none in my real life. I have made friendships there I know will only deepen over time. My FMF family has cheered me on when I didn’t think I had anything worthwhile to say and they’ve prayed with me when things went wrong in my life. I have tried to do the same for them. FMF is not just about the writing — it’s about relationships we form while we are writing.”

Kim is so right. FMF is way more than just writing. It’s extending our family and our outreach.

So, it’s time to set the timer for five minutes, settle down and ponder on the prompt, TAKE. GO …

This was a difficult assignment. Which writing tack to take?

I chose taking risks. I am not afraid to take  a risk, although I do try to weigh the pros and cons before heading down a particular road. That’s a different story, however.

Throughout my life, I was a “comfortable” risk taker. I wasn’t afraid of the unknowns; in fact, I looked at them as adventures. My wife, of course, did not share my sometimes risky behavior.

When I say taking risks, I don’t mean extreme risks like mountain climbing or running a marathon. I’m too sedentary for those. But I do take risks in my personal, professional and spiritual life. Risk-taking lead me to six states and down entirely different paths — paths I might not necessarily thought I would pursue at the time of my choices. If you asked me if I would have pursued a career in the printing field, I would have said no. If you asked me if I would have … STOP

… shared my life through these posts, I would  have said no. I’m too much of an introvert. If you asked me if I would have slid to the slanted side of the pulpit, I would have laughed and said no.

But I did. I was able to move beyond my comfort zone and adopted a “let’s see what God has in mind for me today” attitude. Man, some of the twists and turns have been downright scary, but others have deepened my personal, professional and spiritual life.

I have a couple of roads ahead of me and I have to decide which trail to take. Or, I  can just wait on an answer from above.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Hope is the foundational quality of all change, and encouragement is the fuel which keeps hope alive. — Zig Ziglar

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