I started writing a journal of my experiences in a time of great personal struggle. That start was analogous to being able to steer a moving vehicle, as opposed to trying the same with a stationary vehicle - which is not quite as much fun. Once I had set my sail and cast off, I moved out of my safe moorings into open water and then was able to feel God’s breath fill the sail – the adventure was underway. I had to make the first move. I had to depart and get out of the departure lounge – after all we don’t fly in order to have the lounge experiences, we lounge in order to fly.
There is a principle with God, that in giving we receive. In following that process, generally to the point of freely giving away my most treasured material, I found God to be a bottmless well that always, always filled up again. I have never come near to expending His limitless potential - except in times when I stagnated and stopped outpouring what He gave me, into the lives of others.
As I wrote my journal, God gave life to my words and started to reveal His heart in the context of my pains. I became the pen of that same, great, ready writer who, in His profoundly down-to-earth style chose to reveal His heart through people – it was always that way. He called ordinary souls from ordinary circumstances and when they responded He showed them great mysteries.
When He had finished writing those stories, He arranged for them to be bound into a single book and then allowed us to call it “the bible”. It’s a book whose pages are alive with powerful human drama interwoven with deep truth. It was not written as a manual, but as a narrative that progressively reveals His heart to us, because He so yearns for a personal and rich relationship with His people. The same spirit works to bring significance to all our lives and specifically, in this context anyway, to those who feel called to write about the author of all things.
Time and again I have counselled aspirant writers to just do it - or as Richard Branson rather irreverantly said, "Screw it, let's do it." Even if you never get published, doing it will teach you such vital skills. Eventually (they say after 10,000 hours of persistence) you will reach a tipping point where your writing will acquire a life and vitality of its own. I wrote, wrote and wrote again, fully editing my first book over 1000 times, until I had learnt my lessons and got it "write". Don't hesitate for fear of failure - darn it, let me tell you upfront that you are probably useless, but you will get better and you will master this craft if you stick at it. You will never gain an inch if you stand like a deer in the headlamps willing your next book to get written. Great writers are not born, they are merely ordinary people, full of flaws, who persist long enough to reach greatness.
The greatest value of writing, whether you are ever published or not (to me that has become a secondary goal), is to create a disciplined framework within which God can speak into your life and interpret your life journey. If you want to know what His purpose is for your life, then write and He will flood your writings with sense, inspiration, life, words, meaning and so much more.
In closing, know that the greatest pastime of all great biblical characters was writing, which includes the "author of our faith" - but in writing they all became history makers. So do it - and God will meet you in that mountaintop, reveal His heart to you and then give you the pattern or template of your life calling.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
Image source: www.breathoflifevm.com
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