April 01, 2018

Reason to Write by Sandi Somers

Easter greetings! This Easter Sunday I'm reminded of the Easter liturgy:
       
He is risen;
He is risen indeed

I thought it is so fitting to combine the Easter Sunday theme with one of Jack Popjes' reasons to write—a must-read here.

Our local Spring WorDshop theme is "Reason to Write", and so we've asked our writers to reflect on this topic.

As I write this blog, my major reason to write these last few weeks has been to complete a research paper on the ways professional counsellors and church staff can coordinate better care for those traumatized or with PTSD.

There are so many other reasons to write and so many individual perspectives, that I asked my InScribe Writers’ group members to give reasons they write. Here's an overview.

The major reason  given was to process life. Through journalling we can resolve personal issues, make sense of our experiences and articulate our thoughts. It helps us integrate ourselves: matching our inner and outer lives with who we are and who God made us to be. In writing, we communicate our journey with God, with prayers and devotional thoughts.

Then our group said God has given us the gift of writing which we need to develop. Doing so helps us express creatively our words and our avalanche of ideas. For some it's a pleasure to simply play with words.

We write to help someone else, to stir people, encourage them, and bring joy. We can enlighten the world for others and can change the world. We can convey a message, to inform and persuade.

Further, we write leave a legacy. Some leave a legacy for their family; others leave a legacy in published works.

And that brings me full circle to Easter. We write to communicate what God has done in our lives, especially because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death.

In conclusion, how do you relate to this theme? What meaning does it have for your faith and writing? (If you have already attended a WorDshop, we would love to hear what insight you garnered from the sessions.)

2 comments:

  1. Like many others, I journal as a processing tool and also as a way to pray. I also feel called to write stories as a way to edify, exhort and entertain. As an organization, we 'minister to writers so they can minister to others'. I think this sums up why we, collectively, do what we do, for writing is ministry.

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  2. Reading Jack's story in the link you provided, Sandi, moved me deeply. As I pictured Jack's rushing home to gather the pages of the freshly translated of story of Jesus' crucifixion, I was reminded of the immediacy of the gospel story for those who haven't heard it. How easy it is to take this old story for granted.

    How blessed we are that the disciples of Jesus didn't put off their writing until a more convenient time! They felt the urgency of recording these stories, each in his own way, in his own voice, so that we today have this witness of the life of Christ--the words he spoke, the stories he told, the way he died for us, his obedience to God the Father.

    If God is still working in our lives today, we will have stories to share as well. Thanks, again, for getting us started on this new theme, Sandi.

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