Endurance: The Christian Writer's Burden - Bruce Atchison

Writing and Christianity have one thing in common. Both require endurance. Both are also difficult but not impossible to achieve.

As we've all found out, brilliant prose and poetry don't just happen. They both require a good command of the English language and a firm grasp of grammar.

In Christianity, we are exhorted to, as the Apostle Paul put it in 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV), "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

King Solomon also acknowledged the labour involved in writing. He warned in Ecclesiastes 12:12 KJV), "And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh."

And just as we suffer rejections from magazines and traditional book publishers, we also suffer setbacks for our faith. As James 5:11 ((KJV) explains, "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, (filled with pity) and of tender mercy."

We also know that God and editors don't reject  us when both correct or critique our work. Hebrews 12:7 (KJV) reminds us that, "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"

It sure does seem though that editors have a grudge against us. Even so, we persist in shopping around our work. The same applies to evangelism. We persist in telling people about salvation, even when they become angry with us. As Jesus noted in Mark 13:13 (KJV), "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The same applies to women.

I'm sure we've all felt at one time or another like tearing a verbal strip out of an apparently clueless editor. But we must keep in mind what James 1:19 (KJV) admonishes us. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:" This likewise applies to women.

When our work is done, both for the Lord and on our projects, we feel that delightful rush of accomplishment. As Ecclesiastes 7:8 (KJV) notes, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." May it always be so with you.