Writing

I have been spending my words in other places lately and it has been good. This writing mentorship I am taking has required daily work, and I am sore from processing thoughts to words, and then refining again. I have always believed that the greatest and most honest writing is a holy work. A writer has the potential, through words alone, to bring folks along, sway, sadden, mislead, hurt, or heal.

Writing intensely during a pandemic is, for me, cathartic. Big feelings are happening in our home, (and nationwide) and none seem consistent. I have accepted that this is a grieving time, and people grieve differently. For me, the worst part of the pandemic is not knowing an end date. I can endure much if I know when it will end. A hurricane for example. Yes it rages, yes it destroys, yes it kills. But several days later the healing begins and people go back to work and life resumes its ebb and flow.

I read every night before I go to sleep. Since 2006, I have kept what I call a Life Book: a list of every book I read in any given year. I star the books that mark me; books that leave an indelible impression. There are not many. The books that mark me are the books where great suffering has taken place, and there is a struggle followed by survival and redemption. Little House on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn, Where the Red Fern Grows, Crow Lake, Educated, to name a few.

But Elisabeth Elliot is my hero. Digest any and all of her books, and your heart will be first undone, then strengthened, and secured in the truth of Jesus. I love stories where women are gently strong, submissive to God and servants of others.

Writer Christy Karras recently wrote, regarding the coronavirus pandemic, “Did you ever wonder how you would have acted if you had been caught up in one of those difficult times in history – the American Revolution, the flu of 1918? Do you hope you would have been one of the brave, helpful ones? Here’s your chance.”

Indeed!  What a perspective! We do not know how this will end. But I can be about the business of loving and serving. Writing holy words that till the soil of souls, and produce healing.