Showcase Your Current Project by Sandi Somers

This month we are challenged to write about our current project (or projects­). Is it a new project or something you’ve been working on? How did you get the idea? What are you discovering as your writing is unfolding? When do you plan to have this work finished?

Then showcase a few paragraphs of your writing. On the other hand, perhaps you don’t have any works in progress. You’re in between, wondering what to do next. Or your life has turned upside down and you’re unable to write. Either way, tell us about what’s happening for you. Here’s my “work in progress”.

Focus on Finishing

Summer is approaching, a busier time for me: I connect more with my family, I travel more, and I work in my garden and flower beds. Knowing my writing time often gets interrupted during summer, last month I asked God, “What writing shall I do this summer?”

Into those questions God’s words of peace breathed like a summer breeze. Then the Spirit gently said to “focus on finishing” some of those personal essays, vignettes and devotionals filling up my computer folders.

And so I have begun. Working on individual drafts may seem disjointed as I work first on a devotional, then on a memoir piece, then on an article on writing, but this process is giving me freedom to think one item at a time.

As I shape with more sensory details, deeper meanings, and more insights into God’s ways, I see how my writing is improving. And as I print out hard copies and place them in my binder, I experience an endorphin lift; the pieces are beginning to accumulate. One day they will fit into longer projects I have in mind, but for now, I’m content to let the work unfold gradually.

My Writing Sample

 

This month we were also invited to showcase our work. The following excerpt comes from my visit to Jerusalem where at the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed the invalid from thirty-eight years of suffering.

In my story, Joash, the name I gave the invalid (meaning “God has given”), had been resting, eyes closed, absorbing the warmth of the sun.

Suddenly an unexpected coolness like a cloud crossed his face. Opening his eyes, he saw a stranger with intense brown eyes crouching down near him. “How long have you been coming to the pool?” the stranger asked. “How did you become lame?”

“Those eyes,” Joash thought. “So compassionate, so penetrating!”

Immediately the frustration of his thirty-eight years burst like an old wine skin. “Sir,” Joash said, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to crawl down to the edge, someone else gets ahead of me.” All the while the stranger’s eyes looked deep into his own.

As Joash finished his story, he became calm. It had been good to speak to someone who had paid attention to him. Really listened. He felt whole.

(I proceed through the story of Jesus’ healing, and then ask reflective questions, which include the following:)

1. Psychologists know that people often need to speak their frustration before they can see the issue clearly. Have you released your feelings to someone or to God? What happened?

2. Visualize Jesus standing near you. See the compassion in his eyes as he asks, “I have something new for you. Do you want my healing?” What is the new thing you want him to do for you? How do you respond to him?

Now over to you. Tell us about your works in progress.