Time to Move on (Vlog #4)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbae36_3e5a71e77500413b837a0cac4ef8ca28/720p/mp4/file.mp4

(Vlog in Written Format Below)

Time to Move on

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” 

(Psalm 90:12 NIV)

Well, there’s no doubt about how much God knows me, when He chooses to give me enough signs upside my head you’d think I was an unsatisfied sign-seeking Gideon, or an incessant inquiring Thomas.

To give context to this, I should likely explain myself here and confess that I have been struggling with an overabundance of busy in recent years.

Ah well, let’s be perfectly honest; I have been struggling all of my life and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am always “doing too much!”

It’s just that I have been feeling its impact more so recently.

As a matter of fact, I have been contending with chronic shoulder pain for several months and despite many tests, physio, massage therapy, acupuncture, removal of unhealthy foods, continuing with exercise, I am not finding any answers or showing signs of improvement. 

Now those signs, I can see!

Back to the ones that God has been showing me for quite some (pardon the pun) time now.

It’s about time. 

It’s about time in terms of the theme of this Vlog and it’s about time I started figuring it out.

It was especially profoundly evident this morning, after I awoke from a long night of tossing and turning from pain and I recalled a dream I had about a baby girl.

The alarm was just that; alarming. 

I barely pulled myself out from beneath the warmth and comfort of my bed and struggled to remember what day it was.

As for the significance of the dream, I have been having recurring dreams about babies; holding them and singing to them, and even bringing them back to life. In this dream, the baby girl sang with me. She attempted to mimic my sound and my words.

Babies can mean many things, but I am sure you would likely know that these dreams are never negative. 

In my own case of recurring dreams about me holding infants, I can only assume that God is assuring me that those things I have birthed creatively will grow in time. And, those things I think He’s long forgotten will be given new life.

I have needed this assurance, since I have been especially sensing an urgency about time. As a matter of fact, I have been so concerned that time is running out for me — for my visions and dreams — that I told my son Jade I would be leaving him in charge of all those songs and stories and musicals I wrote that were never heard.

Well, never heard on the scale in which I’d envisioned they would be.

Poor guy. He’s busy enough with his own stuff.

But, after I’m gone he’ll take the time to listen, and to think on these things I’ve written for children, and it will resonate differently because the memory of me, alongside my life’s mission, will be tucked inside every lyric and every note, and it will be as if I never left.

Here’s what this has to do with my main point…

This morning, while sitting alone in the dark for five minutes, I repeated a prayer I have been pressing in with for several months. It has to do with God’s will for my creative pieces and His will in where I place my own hands and time. I have especially pressed in with, “Give me wisdom, Lord.”

Only, I have not been hearing a clear and direct message.

So, this morning I spoke with more brokenness because that is the point to which I have come.

I was led to open my phone to Instagram where I get threads of Christian content. The first thing that popped up was a podcast about Jesus and the “margins” he left in His life, such that He could take the time to respond accordingly to the healing needs of His distractors (i.e. the woman who touched the fringe of His garment).

Baam! 

Minutes later, Pat and I did our daily devotional and yet another Baam!

It’s about time and uses the story about Mary and Martha; where Mary stayed at Jesus’s feet and Martha continued with busy.

What accentuates these Baam Baam’s all the more is that one of my dear sister’s in Christ messaged me a few days ago, following watching my most recent Vlog (“Fit for the Kingdom”) and said she had a word from the Lord for me. 

Can you imagine what it might have been?

Bearing in mind that I have not shared anything personal with her about my dilemma with time.

In a word, following a few other words she wrote: “TIME”

I will return to that message in just a moment.

Here’s the thing: I have been writing about time-management in my journal for the past two years.

Only, I have been a repeat offender of the same pattern of the Israelites thousands of years ago when in the wilderness.

For years, God has been leading me to the answer, as He did His other chosen ones into the promised land.

Perhaps you’re asking, “What’s the answer, Paula?”

For me, the answer is that He wants me to focus on the one thing He’s given me to do right now: SoulCorde Music Ministry and our upcoming concerts and tours, the prison ministry, and those things that coincide, like this website (blogs and Vlogs).

You might be thinking, That’s a lot, Paula! Or, That’s still too much, Paula!

But, you’d be wrong because what you likely don’t know are all the other things I have been squeezing into the margins of my life; all the other creative works, like my children’s musicals for mental health and so on.

All it took for me to fix this was to seek Him in my brokenness and exhaustion and repeat the prayer, only this time I was desperate for Him as much as I was for the answer.

And the beautiful thing is that He is not asking me to put aside those other creative works and visions forever. He is just asking me to set them aside for a time, until such time as He asks me to focus on them.

Or, perhaps one day it will be my son Jade who takes them to the people who know what the stink to do with them already!

Yeah, that.

I digress.

Now, back to what sister Louise shared with me in her message from the Lord.

She gave me permission to use what she sent as part of one of my blogs or Vlogs.

Here’s what she wrote:

“I just got something for you from the Lord,

To speak about the most precious gift of God, 

other than love, peace, hope, and his presence,

Is : TIME.

And he showed me a timeline of five minutes.

To explain to His children that every five minutes 

lost [in] idle thoughts, activities like TV and social networking 

is lost forever.

Five minutes are five precious minutes, [only] to be used for 

[nothing other] than prayer, 

connecting with the Lord, glorifying the Lord.

The importance of [these set aside] five minutes are 

keys [for] a Christian life [which we are to cherish and] 

to hold on tight [to] and persevere into our missions. 

Five minutes seeking the Lord, [seeking] His eyes, 

[seeking] His love,

[become] five minutes of treasure 

[which will abound] in your heart.”

Five minutes this morning, broken down and desperate for a sign — seeking His face and all His grace abounding — brought me to the most simple resolve.

More importantly, He didn’t for one second discount any of those things He’s put on my heart to do since He held me in my infancy and taught me how to sing His song.

Where we need to be careful, when considering Psalm 90, verse 12 — “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” — is not misinterpreting the meaning of numbered days. We’re not to know the time or place of our death anymore than we are to know the time or place of Jesus’ return. 

So, what I feel the urgency is in this (and in my own concern about time) is not missing out on the fragility of each unfolding moment in time and thus practising wisdom in how we utilize it.

Sometimes that means moving on from what was to what lay ahead, while moving steadfast in faith; a faith that can only come from a heart of wisdom.

In parallel to my dear Louise’s message, I pray that He imparts this wisdom upon your heart, as you seek His face, His eyes, His love, and His grace tucked inside a five minute space.

I have chosen to share one of our SoulCorde songs in the video below, as it resonates with this theme: “Time To Move On.”

In Love,

Paula

Time To Move On (demo)

 Time To Move On

Time to move on from here

Moses spoke of God’s commands

That would free them from the land

But only if their hearts were willing

To return an offering

Though they gave abundantly

They sold their souls to slavery

All they needed to be free

Was release their past captivity

Time to move on

Time to move on

Time to move on from here

Walkin’ ‘round this same old path

Same old patterns of my past

Can’t move forward looking back

Spinning here, new life I lack

Seen this mountain for too long

Joy is where my heart belongs

Faith as tiny as a seed

Will remove this thing from me

Time to move on

Time to move on

Time to move on from here

Time to move on

Time to move on

Time to move on from here

Keep, keep, keep on movin’ on

Keep, keep, keep on movin’ on

On, on, on the right path

On, on, on the right path

Walking in circles needs redirection.

Sometimes ya gotta stop and ask for directions

Seek and ye will find His protection

On the rock of salvation

Time to move on

Time to move on

Time to move on from here

(Repeat 3 times)

©Paula Walker (SoulCorde Music)