The items in life that bring me joy, besides my wife and dog :), are reading and writing. My wife picked up a book for me. Once I creased the first page, I could not put it down. Rather than being a book on the nuances of grammar, style, composition, etc., this book is very similar to a spiritual disciplines book. Gearing the mind for a life-style of writing, Douglas Wilson, in Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, was playing the role of Jiminy Cricket to my already attuned soul.
One thing Seminary provided for me was the constant demand to write. Now that I’m in a different program, the demands of writing have subsided for a short while. However, I was still finding the urge to pick up the pen (or keyboard) and start writing.
Writing aids my thinking in a number of ways and has been a means of grace in my life. This was not always the case, but writing has provided much solace to a vexed soul or great joys over a finished product. I’m never viewed myself as the “go-getter” (except for dating my wife, I wanted to marry her and quickly :). However, Wilson stated a few things in his book that have ignited a flame within me.
1. Do what you would love to be able to do someday.
2. Concert pianists can do what they do because they practiced scales for years. Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Nothing worthwhile ever comes without practice.
Why wait until tomorrow for aspirations, desires, dreams, etc. that you feel, yes subjectively feel, God has given you. You can rationalize all you want about the inability or un-“fitness” of your strengths; what you would like to accomplish tomorrow, start today.
Publishing is not the goal. Writing to aid my thinking is the goal. Clarity in writing demands clarity in thinking, which will aid clear communication. Similar to Pastor-to-Pastor, another group of my friends decided to begin a public-forum designed for theological thinking and writing as the pastor-theologian to help each other think through our current development of theological/biblical thinking. It is an attempt to do Theology in Community. The first post will be up tomorrow morning at 8am if you would like to enjoy the musings of another blog! shepherdthesheep.com
My love language is language. Since seminary, I too am not writing by requirement, so also I have grown lax in my love, love for writing that is. My wife has reminded me repetitiously to stretch my sermons from outlines into word-for-word manuscripts. Much to my advantage (and that of my hearers also), I have heeded her words and my communication has cleared up. Thanks to writing word for word my thoughts, I now sense much of the fog has lifted over my sermons, making the rays of our Father's Word more clearly visible. I am less choppy, more fluid, more clear. Write your sermons out my friends, you'll be so glad you did (and so will your people)!
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