Chained to a Computer

Being lonely and being alone aren't the same. I often like being alone, but being lonely--not so much. Writing takes me both places. Sometimes when I write, the inner dialogue and thought process rejuvenates me. Other times it isolates me. Like Joanna in Grit for the Oyster, I often ask myself: "Why on earth am I chaining myself to a computer when it all seems so futile?" [p. 97] My answer: "I love to write. I can't write. I need to write."

My next big project involves finishing a book started in the fall of 2005 originally written in 30-45 segments focusing on John 3:16. When Max Lucado released Numbers That Count the following summer, I was deflated. That was my idea. But Max's readership and platform exceeds mine by about one trillion. So I did what any discouraged writer does. I quit.

But God has a way of shaking us up even when we'd rather sulk.  A few years later during a day of solitude arranged by our church staff, I decided to read Paul's letters to the churches. Then Ephesians 5:1-2 re-stoked the writing flame.

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." NAS

A new book was born. Walk in Love will be finished this fall barring no unforeseen disruptions and with lots of encouragement and suggestions from my friends. I need that. I don't write well lonely.

The Test of Time

September 1972 six freshmen from all over the state unloaded TVs, popcorn poppers, and laundry baskets full of posters, bell bottom jeans, bandannas, and Cover-Girl make-up at the curb of Brady Hall, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. This past weekend we met again--this time at Pokagon State Park, two hours north of our alma mater on I-69  Our swivel-roller bags included scrapbooks and iTunes from the 70's along with Grandma brag books.

True friendship endures--as does the written word.

When the apostle Paul wrote letters to his friends at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colosse, he didn't realize 2,000 years later we could still hear his heart for each group--lessons that span centuries.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Romans 1:16

"God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
1 Corinthians 1:9

 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:21

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."
Philippians 4:8

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12



If God is in it, friendship, truth, and great writing survives the test of time.

Joyce

Jerry B. Jenkins told me to — so I did.

Jerry B. Jenkins told me to — so I did.

Jenkins suggested that writers (yes, that's me) should read good writers — adding that he reads anything by Rick Bragg, former New York Times columnist and non-fiction writer of masterpieces like All Over But The Shoutin’. Jerry B. Jenkins, author of that little 70,000,000-selling Left Behind series and more that 175 books was the keynote speaker at the Indianapolis Christian Writers Conference last November.

I recently finished Bragg's two memoirs.

The following are a few of my favorite Rick Bragg writing jewels from his Shoutin' book:

It would have been artificial to grieve, like bending over plastic flowers laid at a gravesite, and expecting to smell their scent. (pg. 108)

I had always wanted to go to Haiti, the same way I'd wanted to touch my mother’s hot iron. (pg. 201)

It is not that it has turned them against God, only that it has hurt them in a place usually safe from hurt, like a bruise on the soul. (pg. 247)

…the washing machine danced back and forth in the closet like a mentally deranged great-aunt. (pg. 270)

I captured the stories of dead innocents and other great sadnesses in my notebook, like butterflies pressed between the pages of a science project. (pg. 275)

And my favorite gems from Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man:

They understand anger and even hatred, but fury is one of those old words that have gone out of style. Jimmy Jim Bundrum understood it. It rode his shoulder like a parrot. (pg. 35)

Her mind was not built for worry, for being sad. It could not absorb it somehow, the way some ground can’t hold water. (pg. 88)

The things the boys remembered about their daddy were not always spoken things, which are just wind, really, but things he did. (pg. 109) 

“That woman,” he would say, “could nag paint off a wall.” (pg. 135)

...what they had discovered in those years was not the love people whisper about over candles, but the kind they need when their baby girls is coughing at three o’clock in the morning. (pg. 156)

…the sky was changing from blue to a deep and angry purple, like is it was bruised.” (pg. 201)

Some men are just blessed that way. Some men walk in the room, and babies laugh out loud. (pg. 215)

Bragg's writings show the power of words.

I have two writing challenges for you today:

(1)  I double-dog dare you to read Bragg's books.

(2) Write you own gems — now.

Blessed Writing!

 Janet

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