Category: Musings

Why I Write

 [cp_dropcaps]B[/cp_dropcaps]rowsing Twitter this morning, I noticed the hashtag #WhyIWrite and I decided to click on the link to read why others write.  Not surprising, the answers or reasons are very similar—very familiar, albeit with an occasional condescending comment.  It’s the occasional condescension that trips me up from time to time, but over time I’m learning to not take negative opinions so seriously (and I sure hope those twitter writers weren’t derailed by some of the rude comments).  Insults, along with self-doubt, really have an effect on creativity, so it’s been instructive to me to weigh negative comments carefully, glean what I can and literally ignore the rest.  Sometimes, insults can be instructive: they help me refine my message, they help me see what I might be blind to and surely to see what I don’t want to be, and they help me clarify or to attempt to more carefully articulate my thoughts.

[cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]Words in my head every day,
all day long.[/cp_quote]So why do I write? Words. Words in my head every day, all day long. I write because of what the Lord has done for me in all I’ve seen and done in my life.  I write because He’s lavished blessings on me (especially in hard days, the deep blessings I couldn’t see at the time!).  I write because of His great and precious promises—His unfailing kindness and mercy every day of my life. I write because in all these ways the Lord has given me the gift of words to encourage, instruct, inspire, comfort and/or affirm others.  It may well be to a very small or limited number of people, but my goals or purposes have never been dependent on the number of readers or listeners–only with the hope that they would minister to those who do. Incidentally, most all my daily writing is never seen by anyone but me—dozens of journals bear this out.

You know… I think most everyone could, should, would write if they recognize the great gift and value of their life—or if they realized that their unique experiences could help someone. Maybe many someone’s.

I began writing newsletters in high school, first as the activities commissioner and then as student council president. From there I wrote the newsletter for a day school and childcare center in Seattle. In those days we used a mimeograph machine using spirit masters and a manual typewriter.  It was a banner day when we bought our IBM Correcting Selectric II typewriter (If you’ve never used/seen one, they’re pretty cool!!).  Eventually, those were replaced by various computers and, in time, I wrote church newsletters and Bible studies for women which led to the privilege of speaking at women’s retreats and seminars.  All of this was just prior to creating the website that ‘launched’ this blog in the late 90’s. This progression of writing projects also included stamping and lettering… and occasionally, my antique Underwood typewriter.

I share all this to hopefully inspire *you* to write… using whatever you have on hand, whatever your experience, whatever your ‘platform,’ to encourage others, to be used of the Lord to bless and relate to others.
In the end, I hope you’ll enjoy the journey, writing it down as you go.

that you may contribute a verse

My husband sent me a link to a site — I clicked the link and read the words: What will your verse be? I read and reread the article — trying to comprehend the depth of the meaning of the words.  I read the poem from which the thought was taken.  I still mulled over the words.  In an instant they’re easy to read and understand.  What will your verse be?  What will your verse be? What will your verse be? What will your verse be?  Hmmmm… you mean today, right now?  Does this mean tomorrow?  Does this mean in the end? Does this mean in my obit?

Not remembering this poem specifically, but knowing that in my earlier years I’d read it in my American Lit class — still, I needed to go and look it up.  Hmmmm, Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman, O Me! O Life!  I’d read him and liked his work.  It was sometimes light, sometimes depressing, introspective  — at once meaningless and meaningful to me.

Even today I read depressing things from time to time and am assaulted by the resulting oppression.   Sometimes I sink into the hopeless emptiness and have to really examine why in the world am I letting myself be entertained by the dead end nature of the writing?  Thankfully, faith in Jesus is, or soon becomes for me, a springboard to as quickly refute the worthlessness of the baseless depression as quickly as I fell into it. I have to guard against allowing myself to wander into the abyss of worthlessness or regret or self-deprecation – the rehashing failures or regrets.  And, man is easy to trip and fall into it. Maybe it is for you, too.

So that site and intriguing heading: What will your verse be?   It’s worth reading the article – well, for me it’s worth reading articles of this sort from time to time that are written from a perspective that might differ from mine.  It’s like I see things from a different angle and that angle so sharpens or contrasts my own that it makes me check and/or define what I think — makes me defend the Truth (or at the very least carefully affirm what is True).   It’s in articulating the Truth that affirmation is cemented in the heart.  Well, that, and daily Bible reading.  And prayer.

This is the poem, Oh Me! Oh Life! by Walt Whitman

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

  Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

All this has been particularly interesting to me today – a low day, a what in the world am I here for? sort of day. And then I recall my devotional… and the message at church this morning… and helping our daughter here in our home with her newborn baby… and so many other blessings… and God’s great mercy despite my failings… and the grace of God.

And I mull over the last few words of the poem: the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.  And I think: what will the verse be that I contribute?  In this life — this powerful play, What verse may I contribute?  This isn’t (for me) a who am I and what am I here for? sort of moment.  Rather, it’s a pondering, it’s a question: In this powerful play, what verse might I contribute?  Meaning, I’ve got a part to play – I’ve got a verse to contribute!!  I mustn’t go another day just squandering the gifts of the Lord.  What verse might I contribute today?  What will be summed up in the end??  What will your verse be?

Save