On Writing

As I was talking with a church friend last night at our church bonfire, he asked me about my writing. He wondered if I make a schedule of what essays I'm going to write for the week. I said I try to do an outline listing some draft subjects of blog essays for the week, but more often than not, it gets sidetracked by other things that come up.

I said that I marvel that I've written daily for 9 years, and over 4,000 essays, and that it is the Spirit who gives me ideas, time, energy, and resources to do it. He is an endless well, who never runs out of ways to prompt me to do an essay on a particular subject. It is tremendous. I never have to worry aobut "What am I going to write", because somehow, things always come together, even if it's not on a subject I originally intended at the outset of the week.

I wonder how it was for the Bible writers. As a writer, I know what the writing process feels like. I know that sometimes it's a struggle to put thoughts down in the way I want, or how to wrestle with a topic that is too large for this space, and how to distill it into consumable sections so the reader isn't overwhelmed... What must it have been like for them to be directly inspired by the Spirit to God-breathe HIS words onto paper! It must have been thrilling and frightening at the same time. When I get to heaven I'd love to talk with any of the Bible writers about how it was for them to pen God's thoughts.

This week on my little blog and from my tiny brain, lol, the following subjects are on my list. It remains to be seen if I write on these this week or if I wind up on a completely different rabbit trail

Monday: Puritan Wives- Anne Hutchinson: Screeching Usurper, or Passionate Disciple?
Tuesday: A local-to-me incident and my thoughts on it
Wed: The weight of the cross
Thu: Throwback
Fri: On Reading
Sat: A Day in the Life of a Fisherman
Sun: Word of the week: Fruit of the Spirit, Peace

I had a list last week and most of the subjects were completed into published essays except for one. Soemthing came up and I swerved from the outline I'd made for myself. That's OK, it is the writing life. Flexibility is important and things arise that occupy my attention or oare more timely.

This most often happens when I am doing Bible reading and I become fixated on something I read. You know that feeling, when your concentration drills down like a laser on one thing and the Spirit keeps it turning over and over in your mind...

Sometimes I do a shorter or a different essay because simply, I'm tired when I get home. The school day is busy and the sensory input of being among flouorescent lights, 500 children, and a staff of 50, with bells ringing and a LOUD lunchroom, sometimes just overcomes me and I empty out into a fleshly lump at the end of the day, sitting there looking at a blinking cursor, breathing but not thinking. Oh well! :)

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day & week. My plan is to settle in after work and research Anne Hutchinson's life as a wife. It's a huge subject, so we'll see how it goes.


Cattermole, George, 1800-1868; The Scribe


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