Yesterday I half-jokingly posted a "Happy Introverts Day" on my Facebook page. I really mean "half-jokingly" because those of you who know me well know I am a card-carrying introvert. I recharge alone rather than in a crowd. I hole up in my "cave" and spend time just being. If I don't, I will become irritable, overwhelmed and distracted (my ADD kicks into overdrive and I spend all kinds of time chasing my tail). Not pretty at all . . . and frustrating.
So why does this old man think he can help plant a church? Aren't church planters by definition extroverts out and about with the people all the time, getting jazzed from multiple and frequent contact, and never tiring of hanging out? Well yeah that's the model, and it makes sense because much of church planting is building relationships with strangers. If you shy away from doing so the entire enterprise will likely be painful.
So what business have I in trying to do this? Well, some days I really wonder. I have those days when the dissonance inside me from having to go out and meet people, or introduce myself to strangers is deafening. I want to avoid going out there like the plague. Procrastination becomes a trusted ally: I just need to get this last thing done before I head out. That last thing takes the rest of the day. Well played, cowboy.
I know I have to come to grips with the reality of my introversion. It is part of the "factory-installed" equipment, not merely an accessory. Truth be told, I will church plant the way an introvert has to church plant. God understood that when he called me to the task. God sees what isn't as though it were.
So what does an introverted old man planting churches require to have a ghost of a chance of actually planting one?
1. The necessity of balance: I will need the alone times. On the other hand, I will need to balance them with frequent people times. My personality has to have both for me to get done any fruitful planting. So balance can mean spending an entire day or weekend "holed up," followed by spending an entire day or weekend engaged with others. Or it can mean days sprinkled with both. Balance is required no matter its configuration.
2. A penchant for flexibility: I can't be rigid in how I spend my time. I need to be able to react when an opportunity presents itself to connect with someone new. I also need to have the freedom to let it all go when I have to recharge for a day. It is not selfish to do so.
3. Obeying the priority of getting out there no matter how I feel: Obedience to the call should never be ruled by how I feel from one day to the next. I have been sent here to plant a church, and I best be getting after to it one way or the other. Feelings can overwhelm me so I have keep the "prime directive" ever before me when the feelings intrude. Obeying God makes things of worth happen.
4. Grace finds and makes the way: Even though I am an introvert in a role most attuned to extroverts, I have to rely on grace to make the way ahead right and fruitful. Without grace I will be neutered and impotent no matter how hard I work or clever I am. God's grace creates the opportunity, gives the ability to explore it, and produces any Kingdom result lying hidden within. Grace is an exquisite lubricant and ice cutter.
5. The Holy Spirit guides and enables: Working by the rich means of grace, the Holy Spirit makes alive what is merely latent. The Spirit can take any introvert and make him or her efficacious for the task. It is the Spirit who ultimately makes a way where there appears no way forward, or I am just up to my eyeballs in me and can't do anything.
6. God will use my interiority to his advantage: Introverts tend to think about stuff, even ponder continually the essentials of what he or she is doing. God takes thought and turns it to his use when a person's true heart desires his glory first and foremost. Such desire demands action. While it may be a challenge to leave the place of thought and dreams, the power of God trumps my penchant for living there. He has done so since the beginning of the imagine/Northampton adventure.
Lastly, I realize my introversion will remain in tact until I breathe my last breath. I will need frequent and substantial times-out for the duration. I also understand I have been called to plant this wild-hair dream called imagine/Northampton. There will be all sorts of new people still to engage and draw in. I will feel the dissonance of my introversion often, but I will also feel the Spirit's promptings to go anyway and be of use to the reason I was sent.
My introverted nature "is what it is," as they say. But God is the Master at taking it" and turning it into" it has become what no one would have imagined."
Introverts get to be a part of such wonders too.
I know because I am a witness.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Give Recognition to Such Men: Gifts of Refreshing in the Buckling Over Times.
I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men.
1Corinthians 16:17-8
Yesterday I had two wonderful "hang in there's" from God. One was expected (not the refreshing, but the meeting), the other was a surprise. I desperately needed both. I was weighed down after a weary Christmas, and sorely needed refreshing.
The first one came in the morning as I met with an old friend and Board member. He is a man of wisdom, a Jesus-follower with great integrity and godly influence. He is a Barnabas to me. Over breakfast, we talked of the many rigors and frustrations of church planting in New England, battling discouragement and financial pressure, dealing with meager returns despite great effort, and the need for discernment in the face of great challenge. His willingness to listen in support, and offer generous words of refreshing lifted my spirit. He made a difference.
Later in the afternoon as I was at my office working, I received a surprise call from another old friend and Church Planter. He was in the parking lot and had come to Northampton on an unrelated errand. He thought maybe we could catch up for a minute or two. He is a bona fide Jesus-follower, and another man of full of wisdom and grace. He has been an encourager and counselor to me from the beginning. We also talked of many things around what it is like to plant churches in New England. In the process, he refreshed me with gracious insight, laced with his signature wit. When he left I was lifted further.
Men such as these brothers (women too, of course), are inestimable gifts sent by God at such times of desolation and spiritual fatigue. They are like ministering angels, responding to a prompt from God to bring refreshment. In their presence it feels as if God is saying, " I know what you are bearing up under. I know your shoulders are bent, your knees hurt, and your back is weary. But take heart. You are in the company of friends who love you. And I love you. Don't give in or turn back. It is but a little while until I will bless you for trusting me and making the sacrifice to bring the Kingdom to a people wandering in darkness and death."
I so needed what they gave and God gave through me them.
Thanks guys. Thank you, Jesus.
May you receive such unexpected refreshing in your times of buckling over, even this day.
1Corinthians 16:17-8
Yesterday I had two wonderful "hang in there's" from God. One was expected (not the refreshing, but the meeting), the other was a surprise. I desperately needed both. I was weighed down after a weary Christmas, and sorely needed refreshing.
The first one came in the morning as I met with an old friend and Board member. He is a man of wisdom, a Jesus-follower with great integrity and godly influence. He is a Barnabas to me. Over breakfast, we talked of the many rigors and frustrations of church planting in New England, battling discouragement and financial pressure, dealing with meager returns despite great effort, and the need for discernment in the face of great challenge. His willingness to listen in support, and offer generous words of refreshing lifted my spirit. He made a difference.
Later in the afternoon as I was at my office working, I received a surprise call from another old friend and Church Planter. He was in the parking lot and had come to Northampton on an unrelated errand. He thought maybe we could catch up for a minute or two. He is a bona fide Jesus-follower, and another man of full of wisdom and grace. He has been an encourager and counselor to me from the beginning. We also talked of many things around what it is like to plant churches in New England. In the process, he refreshed me with gracious insight, laced with his signature wit. When he left I was lifted further.
Men such as these brothers (women too, of course), are inestimable gifts sent by God at such times of desolation and spiritual fatigue. They are like ministering angels, responding to a prompt from God to bring refreshment. In their presence it feels as if God is saying, " I know what you are bearing up under. I know your shoulders are bent, your knees hurt, and your back is weary. But take heart. You are in the company of friends who love you. And I love you. Don't give in or turn back. It is but a little while until I will bless you for trusting me and making the sacrifice to bring the Kingdom to a people wandering in darkness and death."
I so needed what they gave and God gave through me them.
Thanks guys. Thank you, Jesus.
May you receive such unexpected refreshing in your times of buckling over, even this day.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
NOTICE . . .
Keep your eyes wide open and your heart soft toward God and people today. Don't get numbed by the sturm und drang of the last minute Christmas shopping/preparation frenzy all about you. God's invites you and me this fresh day to:
Notice His whispers (sometimes shouts) of grace all around you, his gifts to open your life in him.
Notice the subtle trace of his image in the faces of people around you, those you know and those you will pass by.
Notice his invitation to be unselfish and meet a need that will bring Christmas into someone's life even if unawares.
Notice God's laughter in the unexpected, (thanks, Jen).
Notice the weariness and stress of those near you so you might be a bringer of light and rest, even for just a moment.
Notice how God desires to free you from self-absorption today; lift up your head . . . listen.
Notice how his love for you can be wrapped in the simple, unadorned and unlikely.
Notice his invitation to smile and pray and sing in your heart.
Notice Jesus, adore him in your own way.
Merry Christmas!
Notice His whispers (sometimes shouts) of grace all around you, his gifts to open your life in him.
Notice the subtle trace of his image in the faces of people around you, those you know and those you will pass by.
Notice his invitation to be unselfish and meet a need that will bring Christmas into someone's life even if unawares.
Notice God's laughter in the unexpected, (thanks, Jen).
Notice the weariness and stress of those near you so you might be a bringer of light and rest, even for just a moment.
Notice how God desires to free you from self-absorption today; lift up your head . . . listen.
Notice how his love for you can be wrapped in the simple, unadorned and unlikely.
Notice his invitation to smile and pray and sing in your heart.
Notice Jesus, adore him in your own way.
Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Following Jesus the Liberator Is Our Primary Identity.
Last Sunday I was set to give the message for imagine/Northampton's Very First Christmas Celebration. But due to the threat of the heavy snow we were supposed to get (which turned out to be only a dusting even though the radar showed it snowing over Northampton for 24 hours), we canceled Sunday's celebration on Saturday. Oh well.
Anyway, I thought I would share briefly what I was going to say.
Some background, first (I know this is not a complete sentence, by the way). Over the last
several months due to my reading of Ken Bailey, N.T. Wright, and John Howard Yoder, as well as Shane Claiborne and Jim Wallis earlier, I am being changed in how I view what Jesus came to do and how the Kingdom of God is to operate in my life and the lives of others. Almost 100% of my ministry before coming to Northampton was to Christians, teaching them to hear God and helping them heal. It was about liberation, but the focus was on people who already acknowledge Christ. All of it good stuff.
My change has come in two forms.
First, I realize increasingly Christ's liberating revolution was as much about overthrowing and neutralizing the universal Powers (Satanic rebellion, sin-infected cultural institutions, social conventions and traditions) that crush people, lull them into trifles, or destroy their lives as much as it is about my personal salvation as a sinner in need of the liberation of the cross. I have zero doubts I need Jesus's substitutionary atoning for me. But it isn't merely about my personal need as desperate as that is. I am just one tiny part of an astounding Creation-freeing Story, the likes of which is beyond our imagining in its scope and import.
So the collective witness and work of Christians demonstrates that the stranglehold of the Powers can be defused without violence or anarchic rebellion. We can live differently and demonstrate a freedom from oppression no matter how enticing. Our Holy Spirit infused values can transform what the Powers commandeered:
Love undermines fear.
Sacrificial service subverts pride.
Grace deflates hatred.
Generosity shames selfishness.
Jesus's revolution seeded at his birth, created at the cross, launched at the Resurrection and spread at Pentecost irrevocably severed the root of "the sickness unto death" in the universe. It is finished at the heart. It is the Story of all stories without which would make all of life "sound and fury; the tale told by a fool, signifying nothing." Jesus liberated the universe and his revolution is well underway.
Secondly, the Church, you and me, has been given the divine mandate to spread this subversive liberation. We are to head out all the time and work patiently to make disciples. We are to love and serve the world, witnessing to the transforming power of Jesus to free the captive and overturn the Powers. By our ordinary and simple lives we gain a foothold and establish life in midst of death.
Your primary (first order) identity as a Jesus-follower is that of a liberator and revolutionary. What? I know that might sound over-blown, but is it? What other primary identity could possibly trump it for the Christian: being an American or other nationality, your profession, the local church you go to, who you voted for in the national election, your ethnicity, financial or social status, what town or neighborhood you live in, or whether you are a Yankees or Red Sox fan? Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 25:31-40 that our primary identity centers on incarnating the his life-giving love to the least of our brethren. and anyone else he puts in our path. We are to spend the rest of our days so doing. We are servants (actually bond-servants, if you will). Nothing we do or can do is more important. Matters of eternity command our closest attention and our deepest daily loyalty, do they not?
Jesus liberated and sanctioned us to go about every last one of our days bringing the kingdom into the lives of people we meet, care for, work with and live around. Each day affords us the opportunity to unlock someone with a word, gesture or act of service that opens them just a little to the Gospel. How we do so does not have to be spectacular or clever. It will be merely the expression of a person who has been undone by the loving liberation of Jesus, and desires the same for everyone else who will listen and see.
Do you see yourself this way? Are you paying attention? Are you holding back? Is it your primary identity truth be told?
I have a long way to go in being really useful to his revolution, but I want to be.
I ask him to sovereignly make it so. I am more of a mess than I like to admit or show publicly, but history testifies he uses messes like me way beyond what they could have imagined.
May what he started in me years ago in Boston be completed such that his revolution is more and more my way of living and that of the McDermott household.
Anyway, I thought I would share briefly what I was going to say.
Some background, first (I know this is not a complete sentence, by the way). Over the last
several months due to my reading of Ken Bailey, N.T. Wright, and John Howard Yoder, as well as Shane Claiborne and Jim Wallis earlier, I am being changed in how I view what Jesus came to do and how the Kingdom of God is to operate in my life and the lives of others. Almost 100% of my ministry before coming to Northampton was to Christians, teaching them to hear God and helping them heal. It was about liberation, but the focus was on people who already acknowledge Christ. All of it good stuff.
My change has come in two forms.
First, I realize increasingly Christ's liberating revolution was as much about overthrowing and neutralizing the universal Powers (Satanic rebellion, sin-infected cultural institutions, social conventions and traditions) that crush people, lull them into trifles, or destroy their lives as much as it is about my personal salvation as a sinner in need of the liberation of the cross. I have zero doubts I need Jesus's substitutionary atoning for me. But it isn't merely about my personal need as desperate as that is. I am just one tiny part of an astounding Creation-freeing Story, the likes of which is beyond our imagining in its scope and import.
So the collective witness and work of Christians demonstrates that the stranglehold of the Powers can be defused without violence or anarchic rebellion. We can live differently and demonstrate a freedom from oppression no matter how enticing. Our Holy Spirit infused values can transform what the Powers commandeered:
Love undermines fear.
Sacrificial service subverts pride.
Grace deflates hatred.
Generosity shames selfishness.
Jesus's revolution seeded at his birth, created at the cross, launched at the Resurrection and spread at Pentecost irrevocably severed the root of "the sickness unto death" in the universe. It is finished at the heart. It is the Story of all stories without which would make all of life "sound and fury; the tale told by a fool, signifying nothing." Jesus liberated the universe and his revolution is well underway.
Secondly, the Church, you and me, has been given the divine mandate to spread this subversive liberation. We are to head out all the time and work patiently to make disciples. We are to love and serve the world, witnessing to the transforming power of Jesus to free the captive and overturn the Powers. By our ordinary and simple lives we gain a foothold and establish life in midst of death.
Your primary (first order) identity as a Jesus-follower is that of a liberator and revolutionary. What? I know that might sound over-blown, but is it? What other primary identity could possibly trump it for the Christian: being an American or other nationality, your profession, the local church you go to, who you voted for in the national election, your ethnicity, financial or social status, what town or neighborhood you live in, or whether you are a Yankees or Red Sox fan? Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 25:31-40 that our primary identity centers on incarnating the his life-giving love to the least of our brethren. and anyone else he puts in our path. We are to spend the rest of our days so doing. We are servants (actually bond-servants, if you will). Nothing we do or can do is more important. Matters of eternity command our closest attention and our deepest daily loyalty, do they not?
Jesus liberated and sanctioned us to go about every last one of our days bringing the kingdom into the lives of people we meet, care for, work with and live around. Each day affords us the opportunity to unlock someone with a word, gesture or act of service that opens them just a little to the Gospel. How we do so does not have to be spectacular or clever. It will be merely the expression of a person who has been undone by the loving liberation of Jesus, and desires the same for everyone else who will listen and see.
Do you see yourself this way? Are you paying attention? Are you holding back? Is it your primary identity truth be told?
I have a long way to go in being really useful to his revolution, but I want to be.
I ask him to sovereignly make it so. I am more of a mess than I like to admit or show publicly, but history testifies he uses messes like me way beyond what they could have imagined.
May what he started in me years ago in Boston be completed such that his revolution is more and more my way of living and that of the McDermott household.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Witnessing History Being Made
There are times in every person's life where if we are paying attention at all, we will realize we are witness to something monumental unfolding in history. It can happen on the world stage or it can happen in our own "backyard."
I and 6 other members of the imagine Team were privy on Wednesday to an extraordinary event with far-reaching implications we all can merely glimpse now. We were invited by Stan Mattson, Founder and Chairman of the C.S. Lewis Foundation to attend the Press Release, Reception and Dinner celebrating the launch of the first C.S Lewis College in history right here in New England. The Foundation with the help of Hobby Lobby, a large retail chain of stores in the Midwest, was able to purchase the lovely Northfield-Mt. Hermon Academy, a school D.L Moody founded to train and send young men and women to be missionaries all over the world.
We spent a good part of the day there mingling with old friends and others gathered for the auspicious occasion. All of us there were struck, I think, by the importance of what was happening, that God was doing something which would have far-reaching consequences for the Kingdom, not only in New England, but beyond. Remarkable too was the amount of prayer that had gone into making it all happen. People have been praying for revival in Western New England for decades, including Christians in Korea. There is a persistent longing among Christians in these parts to see God move in the Pioneer Valley as he did when Jonathan Edwards was here.
We have been told that imagine/Northampton has a part to play in all of what God seems to be doing these days as well. It is no coincidence that we are here. It's hard to see it now because we are so small and just finding our way, but oh that we might play a role in bringing the Kingdom along with our brothers and sisters who have labored here for many years.
The day ended with a lovely dinner together at the home of the Woods who live on campus. The conversation (especially being able to chat with a wonderful Korean Pastor named Chung Ha who has been dedicated to revival here for many years), and food were wonderful. The night ended with a mini-concert by Michael Kelly Blanchard, an old friend, and I got to play a tune with him we had recorded many years ago. It was utterly unexpected!
We finished the evening with Stan telling us of the incredible journey of faith it has been for him and the team to finally arrive at this point. God was glorified in his telling. I was heartened and inspired to hear it because of the challenge it has been to work in Northampton.
I am grateful to have witnessed what transpired on Wednesday and hope it is just the first days of Kingdom marvels to come!
I and 6 other members of the imagine Team were privy on Wednesday to an extraordinary event with far-reaching implications we all can merely glimpse now. We were invited by Stan Mattson, Founder and Chairman of the C.S. Lewis Foundation to attend the Press Release, Reception and Dinner celebrating the launch of the first C.S Lewis College in history right here in New England. The Foundation with the help of Hobby Lobby, a large retail chain of stores in the Midwest, was able to purchase the lovely Northfield-Mt. Hermon Academy, a school D.L Moody founded to train and send young men and women to be missionaries all over the world.
We spent a good part of the day there mingling with old friends and others gathered for the auspicious occasion. All of us there were struck, I think, by the importance of what was happening, that God was doing something which would have far-reaching consequences for the Kingdom, not only in New England, but beyond. Remarkable too was the amount of prayer that had gone into making it all happen. People have been praying for revival in Western New England for decades, including Christians in Korea. There is a persistent longing among Christians in these parts to see God move in the Pioneer Valley as he did when Jonathan Edwards was here.
We have been told that imagine/Northampton has a part to play in all of what God seems to be doing these days as well. It is no coincidence that we are here. It's hard to see it now because we are so small and just finding our way, but oh that we might play a role in bringing the Kingdom along with our brothers and sisters who have labored here for many years.
The day ended with a lovely dinner together at the home of the Woods who live on campus. The conversation (especially being able to chat with a wonderful Korean Pastor named Chung Ha who has been dedicated to revival here for many years), and food were wonderful. The night ended with a mini-concert by Michael Kelly Blanchard, an old friend, and I got to play a tune with him we had recorded many years ago. It was utterly unexpected!
We finished the evening with Stan telling us of the incredible journey of faith it has been for him and the team to finally arrive at this point. God was glorified in his telling. I was heartened and inspired to hear it because of the challenge it has been to work in Northampton.
I am grateful to have witnessed what transpired on Wednesday and hope it is just the first days of Kingdom marvels to come!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
When a Simple Conversation Freshens the Journey.
Yesterday I had a phone conversation with a friend and someone I have had the privilege of being a Spiritual Director to over the years. I have watched her grow in depth of faith, and love for Jesus and his Kingdom. She has come far in her journey with him.
The phone call was one of those check-in-with-one-another varieties. In the course of so doing our friend began to talk about how what she was doing was "wrecking her" with regard to the way she has been living the Christian life. Jesus is "radicalizing" her understanding of what it means to follow him wholeheartedly She related her life will never be the same. She knows she can't go back to the old ways of being Christian. This awareness both scares and inspires her. Indeed.
In the course of the conversation she also related how what we are doing in Northampton through imagine has been pulling at her of late. She has followed our journey here since its inception and now God seems to be whispering to her about more than following from afar. It is still a whisper to be sure, but clearly something is up.
After our exchange, I noticed I was pleasantly bouyed and refreshed for a bit. The day had been what I referred to on Twitter as "crazy-quilt" with all sorts of interruptions from every which way, and no real sense of momentum materializing. I was a little unnerved at times. And frustrated.
What I realized when I thought about it was how refreshed and motivated I become when talking about imagine/Northampton with someone who is getting it: the dream, the vision, the struggle and challenge of trying to plant it in this tough town. When I get to do so the enterprise feels real and substantial. When others respond with interest more than "Wow! That's cool," I get excited because perhaps they are going to get into the fray, and help shoulder forward the mission. Now we're getting somewhere.
I am also heartened when I see God percolating in them the same desire he percolated in me and Tricia, Jim, Karin, Matt and Karen back in Simsbury a few years ago. He is at work behind the scenes birthing this mission. Such awareness braces me.
So thank you, Father, and thank you, Ms. Smith, for the conversation.
May it be a piece of the gloriously redemptive Kingdom of God taking deeper hold in us, and in Northampton, Massachusetts!
Maranatha for real!
The phone call was one of those check-in-with-one-another varieties. In the course of so doing our friend began to talk about how what she was doing was "wrecking her" with regard to the way she has been living the Christian life. Jesus is "radicalizing" her understanding of what it means to follow him wholeheartedly She related her life will never be the same. She knows she can't go back to the old ways of being Christian. This awareness both scares and inspires her. Indeed.
In the course of the conversation she also related how what we are doing in Northampton through imagine has been pulling at her of late. She has followed our journey here since its inception and now God seems to be whispering to her about more than following from afar. It is still a whisper to be sure, but clearly something is up.
After our exchange, I noticed I was pleasantly bouyed and refreshed for a bit. The day had been what I referred to on Twitter as "crazy-quilt" with all sorts of interruptions from every which way, and no real sense of momentum materializing. I was a little unnerved at times. And frustrated.
What I realized when I thought about it was how refreshed and motivated I become when talking about imagine/Northampton with someone who is getting it: the dream, the vision, the struggle and challenge of trying to plant it in this tough town. When I get to do so the enterprise feels real and substantial. When others respond with interest more than "Wow! That's cool," I get excited because perhaps they are going to get into the fray, and help shoulder forward the mission. Now we're getting somewhere.
I am also heartened when I see God percolating in them the same desire he percolated in me and Tricia, Jim, Karin, Matt and Karen back in Simsbury a few years ago. He is at work behind the scenes birthing this mission. Such awareness braces me.
So thank you, Father, and thank you, Ms. Smith, for the conversation.
May it be a piece of the gloriously redemptive Kingdom of God taking deeper hold in us, and in Northampton, Massachusetts!
Maranatha for real!
Monday, December 14, 2009
What Writing Seven Blogs in Seven Days Taught Me.
Most people who write consistently recognize that doing so gets words on the page: the more you write . . . the more you write. It's a truism. Writing solely from inspiration or waiting for "the magic the to happen" slows the writing process. That's what I was doing prior to the Seven Days initiative.
Last week I noticed a particular dynamic at work. Writing daily opened me to paying more attention to how an ordinary day is packed with intriguing stuff to write about. Every day is full of interesting ideas, encounters with people, creative opportunities lying in wait for expressing, natural wonders and weird confluences of events, thoughts and experiences just showing up.
In the process, I also realized my "noticing apparatus" was dulled and needed tuning.
It became clear to me that when you have to write to be read, you start to look for what might be interesting. You become more mindful of the treasures lying camouflaged in the mundane and ordinary. I realized this noticing is similar to the way visual artists see light and shadow. They look at a scene and notice what is there in a nuanced way well beyond what the untrained eye sees. Similarly, musicians hear sounds and rhythms in daily life the untrained ear never notices. It is a matter of paying attention and learning what to notice.
I started to notice more because I had to. It was stimulating and refreshing.
Secondly. I am becoming more in touch with my writing "voice," more at home with it. I am noticing I have something to say and a way to say it. I like watching the words unfold on the page in a design that says something. I notice how I use words and structure ideas. I love being surprised when I stumble into a turn of phrase or way of thinking about something fresh to me. I love the creativity of it: empty page, then full page. And seeing my patterns of thought centers me. Having ADD, I need such focussing.
Lastly, I am always heartened when someone reads what I wrote, connects, is challenged or encouraged. Connecting and making an impact which moves people beyond where they are is how I am wired. It is deeply fulfilling when my words mingle beneficially with another person's life experience. Man . . .
So I am going to keep writing frequently and let the discipline shape me. May Jesus guide the process. May Jesus shape me for his use in it.
Last week I noticed a particular dynamic at work. Writing daily opened me to paying more attention to how an ordinary day is packed with intriguing stuff to write about. Every day is full of interesting ideas, encounters with people, creative opportunities lying in wait for expressing, natural wonders and weird confluences of events, thoughts and experiences just showing up.
In the process, I also realized my "noticing apparatus" was dulled and needed tuning.
It became clear to me that when you have to write to be read, you start to look for what might be interesting. You become more mindful of the treasures lying camouflaged in the mundane and ordinary. I realized this noticing is similar to the way visual artists see light and shadow. They look at a scene and notice what is there in a nuanced way well beyond what the untrained eye sees. Similarly, musicians hear sounds and rhythms in daily life the untrained ear never notices. It is a matter of paying attention and learning what to notice.
I started to notice more because I had to. It was stimulating and refreshing.
Secondly. I am becoming more in touch with my writing "voice," more at home with it. I am noticing I have something to say and a way to say it. I like watching the words unfold on the page in a design that says something. I notice how I use words and structure ideas. I love being surprised when I stumble into a turn of phrase or way of thinking about something fresh to me. I love the creativity of it: empty page, then full page. And seeing my patterns of thought centers me. Having ADD, I need such focussing.
Lastly, I am always heartened when someone reads what I wrote, connects, is challenged or encouraged. Connecting and making an impact which moves people beyond where they are is how I am wired. It is deeply fulfilling when my words mingle beneficially with another person's life experience. Man . . .
So I am going to keep writing frequently and let the discipline shape me. May Jesus guide the process. May Jesus shape me for his use in it.
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