Freedom Writers

They Also Serve Who Only Sit and Click

I laughed so loud when I read this passage from Philip Yancey's book. He said that he got such a "vicarious thrill" when he read Philip Roth's description of writing in "The Ghost Writer" as it was such a precise description of his life. And I totally identified with it. This is pretty much my day!

"I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning."- Philip Roth, "The Ghost Writer"

This whole writing deal can be quite a solitary activity. I'm starting to feel the difference more now that I'm plunging thicker into the writing, and easing out of the teaching which is very interactive. Sometimes it gets to me...just having the Macbook as my companion, but in times like these, I try to remember why I got into this job in the first place- to get people excited about God and ministry, to stir worship in the hearts of men...now through my pen, and not just my song.

These words from Philip Yancey encouraged me deeply and reaffirmed that call for me....

"I became a writer, I believe, because of my own experience of the power of words. I saw that spoiled words, their original meaning wrung out, could be reclaimed. I saw that writing could penetrate into the crevices, bringing spiritual oxygen to people trapped in airtight boxes. I saw that when God conveyed to us the essence of His self-expression, God called it the Word. And the Word comes int he most freedom-enhancing way imaginable.

I pray that the church in increasingly oppressive times, will remember that words have their greatest impact when they enhance freedom, when they liberate."- Philip Yancey, "Finding God in Unexpected Places"