Welcome to Thursday 360!
Are you a Christian writer? Think you can write a mind-blowing short story in 360 words or less? Let’s see what you’ve got!
Here’s How it Works
New posts will publish here on Thursdays. Write a 360-word (or less) flash fiction story based on the photo prompt (featured near the bottom of this post) and enter it in the comments section below. The results will be posted the following Thursday along with the new prompt. Winner will get the opportunity to display the Champion’s Badge on their website.
Rules and What-not
The rules are pretty simple. All entries for the current challenge must be posted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday, June 15th. They must be original, unpublished stories inspired by the photo prompt and they must have no more than 360 words (title doesn’t count). Stories don’t have to be Christian in subject matter, but cannot contain foul language, erotic, anti-Christian content, etc… (Let’s try to keep it G-rated, folks.) By posting, you attest that your entry conforms to these rules; I am in no way liable if it doesn’t. I reserve the right to reject/delete anything that does not follow the rules.
All entries remain the property of their authors.
Results for Last Week’s Challenge
Champion: Daleen Cowgar for her story Do You See Me?
Here’s your e-badge, Daleen, and props for a creative take on the prompt. 🙂
The Prompt
And here’s the prompt for this week’s challenge.
Remember the deadline is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday, June 15th.
Also, remember to become a follower so you can get email notifications of results and new posts.
Check out Christian Flash Weekly after you’re done for another great contest to help you hone your short fiction skills.
Whitney L. Schwartz 
I managed to miss your return last week, but I see it now. Glad to see improvement all around. And glad to have you back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Charles. 🙂
LikeLike
360 word count.
Vrein11@gmail.com
Hosea’s Wife
He had waited here all night. She never showed. He thought she might not.
He had tried. That’s all he could do for her. Offer his assistance and love her where she was at.
He never thought it would be so hard! Oh how he loved her! She was beautiful and his heart pounded out of his chest when he was around her. He couldn’t think straight. He wanted to get her cleaned up and help her get free.
How do you do that when someone doesn’t really want to? How do you do that when the only life she has known is this? He waited and thought about her life. The life he wanted to deliver her from and bring her into the life she deserved. The life everyone deserved. The life she was living now prostitution, and abuse was not something anyone deserved.
He had seen her around the streets a few times. When the Lord prompted him to talk to her just a few months ago, he hadn’t expected this at all. After that brief encounter, the Lord hadn’t let him forget her. He brought her to his mind time and time again and he continued to be obedient and pray for her. Then, he had a dream in which he brought her home to his own home after a beautiful wedding ceremony. He knew what the Lord was asking him to do was hard, he didn’t realize just how hard it would be.
They had talked several times after that, his heart beating within his chest, mind racing. But they had enjoyed each other’s company, she puzzled as to why he didn’t just do what they all did and leave. She found him safe and eventually conceded to allow him to help her out.
They had agreed to meet here. They could not meet anywhere near the city where she worked or they would be in grave danger. She would get here to meet him. Sadly, he turned to get into the car and head back home. She had chosen to stay, he thought, it was just too hard.
“Don’t Leave!” breathlessly, she appeared. “I’m here.”
I hope you like this.
Vicki
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, Vicki, thanks for entering! I like how you tied in a biblical story with the prompt. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.. have you read Francine rivers book “redeeming love”?? It’s kind of where I got the idea.. excellent book!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, I haven’t read it, Vicki, but I’ve heard some about her writing. I might have to start reading some of her books.
LikeLike
Waiting for Macy
It seemed like he’d spent his whole life waiting for her. Waiting for her to realize there could be something more between them than just friendship. Waiting for her to get through college. Waiting for her to get over a bad boyfriend. Waiting for her to establish her career. Waiting for her to realize that she really did love him. Waiting for her to get back from seeing the world.
Now, leaning against the side of his silver BMW, he waited.
She’d told him to wait for her at Tufts Beach across from the airport—the place where they’d shared their first kiss. It meant something, her asking him to meet her here. And he was pretty sure he knew what. He had an aching doubt somewhere deep inside him that he was wrong…but he knew her too well to believe it.
“Matt!”
He heard her in the distance and turned to see her across the road. She waved at him and his heart lit up at the sight of her. She jogged across the road and came to a stop in front of him. Her broad smile and the light in her eyes told him all he needed to know. The subtle weight of the jeweler’s box in his pocket made him all the more eager to ask her the question that burned in his soul.
This was the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
He took her in his arms and responded to her kiss.
Looked like she was going to make him wait a little longer.
But he didn’t mind.
He’d ask her later.
Approx. Word Count: 286
LikeLike
The Life Left Behind
355 words @CharlesWShort
Jimmy watched the waves. In his memory he was surfing. In his heart he was a surfer.
But now he was a seminary student, having given his life to Christ just two years earlier. He made a commitment to the Lord to do anything God called him to do. This bold commitment had been followed by a definitive call to preach.
So the surfer boy put away his boards and started taking classes in Bible, theology, and church administration. Yet his faith and his calling didn’t change his identity, they had added to it.
Almost every day he stopped to watch the waves though, because somewhere in his heart he was a surfer. It was the life left behind, but it never stopped being who he was.
When he surfed every day he had almost never talked to his dad. Now they talked daily and his father tells him he is proud of him.
The water is calm today. Good surfing for the smallest of children and beginners, but tomorrow changing weather will bring bigger waves.
He won’t be surfing them though, he will be in his class discussing the doctrine of eternal security. It rubbed him the wrong way. People can knowingly, purposefully stop serving God and still be safe in God’s care?
A young man and his son was entering the water now. The older teaching the younger to balance and steer the board. This made Jimmy think of his father again, although his father had never surfed. His father was a marine, not a surfer. Once a marine, always a marine. His father says that all the time.
The corps had changed his father forever. Some changes are like that. The old man couldn’t stop being a marine if he tried, just like Jimmy couldn’t stop being a surfer. And Christians can’t stop being Christians. You can’t undo God’s work, or the life experience.
Jimmy climbed back in his car and prepared to head to class. He thanked God for a little better understanding of theology.
It was time to make his father proud.
It was time to make his Father proud.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good story, Charles. I like that ending. 🙂
LikeLike