Six Reasons We Write

THERE’S NO BETTER TIME THAN NOW TO GET YOUR WRITING ON. Do what writers do and begin expressing what is in your heart. The first time I met with a writing instructor I was told that writing is a craft that one must learn. Good books don’t just happen, they come through a birthing. You may be like me. I have a drawer full of writings that I wrote over the years that have never come to print and were never meant to. Some were caused by overflow within me. Why do writers write and authors author? Here are a few  of the reasons.

  1. We write because we have something to say. We know what we know. We like what we like. We love what we love. We don’t like what we don’t like. It bubbles to the top–in and out–much like a mountain spring, it flows out from our inner well.
  2. We write because we have a love of words. We like how they sound. We like their musicality. We like the game of finding just the right word. It’s like a puzzle that one works at until you find the exact piece that fits. Our craft is one of words and their inner connections and vital signs.
  3. We write because of an inner compelling. We give voice to our emotions. Our heart bids expression. We write, in love. We write, emotional, even angry. We write, unhappy. We write, ecstatic. We write, enthusiastic. We write, lonely. We write with urgency. We write, we write, we write. There are times we write as a therapeutic exercise, only for ourselves.
  4. We give voice to our words for we are writers of messages. We write to say worthwhile considerations, something that needs to be shared. We write so that people can learn and grow. We write through our voice of experience. We write to teach as a way to communicate what we wish to say. We wish to influence as a way to cause others to think and consider. We seek to state our cause succinctly with passion or grace or force. We are messengers. This is why we write, even when we are our only audience.
  5. We write to encourage or cause emotion. We write to validate, to praise, to appreciate, to sympathize, to empathize, to lift up, to set down, to remember, to correct, and to guide. We know words have power. We are the guardians of our words and we take our guardianship of them with great seriousness.
  6. We write to establish a presence that speaks. We write to create a business model, to execute to the next level. We write with personal or professional agenda, to make sketch of the realistic non-fiction venue or to share our talent through the casual informal note of the letter writer.

I choose to write for all of the six reasons I have stated. If I didn’t have something to say, I am sure I wouldn’t spend the hours I do at the computer trying to say it. I’d do something else with my day.

I encourage you to write if you are so inclined. Don’t put it off. There is no better time than now. Do it, and keep at it until you get it right. I think I can, I think I can . . . said the little engine that could.

Bless you.

 

Let me know how it’s going. I’d love to hear.

Norma

Atheist or Christian? A Matter of Belief and Viewpoint

Belief or unbelief, Believer or Unbeliever, believing or unbelieving. . . .There are many ways to say it, but it can be reduced to a state of belief.

Yet, again, I read through another blog written by a former minister of the gospel who is now a professing and sharp-tongued critic of the faith. His world view is that of a rather new atheist who has found his peace in non-belief. I read his words and, actually, appreciate his honesty and transparency. His views along with others I have been reading who left the faith and have embraced atheism, shares a bitterness toward what they once believed and proclaimed but now whole-heartedly reject.

Even though I find it disheartening and sad beyond measure, I do somewhat understand their angst and desire to be removed, disconnected, and distant from what they once proclaimed. Christianity takes heart-belief not religious conformity. I can see anyone dissing that from their life. It offers emptiness. The falseness was overwhelming to them.

In my life, it worked just the opposite. I was floundering in my faith, feeling empty and lacking in joy, when I gave up. I couldn’t sustain the effort and hated the “going through the motions” that scripted religiosity serves to a person. But I loved God. I knew there had to be a better way. I asked God to show Himself to me and to change me.

Everything changed as a result of that prayer of sincerity. God came up close and personal. My spiritual life went through a radical renewing, I came to lose interest in Christianity that is performance driven. Instead I came to Jesus in heart, soul, and being. Then He gave me His love, and I accepted it. God’s love is earth-shattering real. I wish all would partake of it.

What drove some Christians into godless atheism, effectively drove me into God-inspired realism for lack of a better term. I didn’t want to continue living as I was, with a faith that is lacking in life and substance. The atheist and I have that in common. However, I went “to” because I still believed in God and His goodness, but they went “away” because they no longer believed in the truth and realness of God as a good God or as an entity who offers hope and life.

Resurrection is what I embraced in my inner self, my spiritual life. On this Easter weekend, I can truthfully say, you and I can go through our own crucifixion experience, where we die to self and become alive to God. It is so alive that it causes “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

“The love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell.”

Why do they no longer believe in God? It’s hard to explain, but if the thing is no longer “real” to someone, then it is useless and lacks in value. Add to that the “harsh” side of rigid views, people that only “love” those who are like them. And you have something that is easy to loathe because it lacks a genuine spirit of love.

Love is what brought God to man and man to God.

It is Easter weekend. I went to a three hour Passion Play last night in Elk Grove. The day before, I read the complete offering of the atheist I mentioned in the first paragraph. The contrast is great. As I watched the play, I kept thinking of former Christian believers who no longer share the faith. I was trying to see it through their eyes, and, quite frankly, it wasn’t that hard to see. One can’t help but wonder about it since there are so many who have “turned away” as Christians like to term it (but I prefer not to). I take their views as valid, and ask myself many questions. Christ needs to be real and life-giving or it is a mockery.

The Christ Story is a hard one. It isn’t neat and tidy or even happy. The love of God, when it is seen as brutal or belittling, cannot reach the soul. Is God’s love, real love? Is it pure? Are we at liberty to embrace His love? I cannot answer that question for you. It is a personal question one must grapple with.

I  do know this, though, God cannot be embraced through another person’s beliefs. It is through your own. I find God to be life-giving life-changing real. He completes my life. I would be much less a person without Him. I don’t believe I am making my emotions become who I am. It is not false or a facade. We live in a cursed world, one that is angry and struggling. The cross of Jesus Christ provides a way of escape for in Him new life is given.