Motivation and Intention by Linda Hoye

The year begins with intention, most of them do. We set goals—we dare not call them resolutions—to write a number of words, pages, or other bodies of work, in a set period of time and we sit down at our desk and write.

Then life, and sometimes our own insecurities, get in the way and we start to think that our words don’t matter. Perhaps we even come to believe that it’s selfish to sequester ourselves away to scribble words in a notebook or tap them out on a keyboard. We start to think that we have nothing to say. We ask ourselves why we bother to try at all.

Madeleine L’Engle said, “if I thought I had to say it better than anyone else, I’d never start.” Like Madeleine, we’re wise to remember that we’re not called to do anything better than anyone else, we’re called simply to use the measure of ability given us by God, to honour Him while serving others. Intention, by itself, won’t help us make it past February with our goals. There has to be something bigger behind it.

Intention by itself will not sustain us in our writing life.

When we spend time in God’s presence, we become saturated with grace and changed by boundless love. We come to understand that we who have been gifted with a desire, and a measure of ability to dabble with words are charged to use what we’ve been given to honour our Creator. We don’t have to do it in the same way any other pilgrim does. We’re unique. We seek, in our own way, to find fresh ways to write about timeless truth.

So, we take our writing desire to prayer, and we remember what Jesus told Paul on the road to Damascus: tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.[1] Simple. Then we walk out the ordinary days of our life, guided by grace and wrapped in love. We look for God in ordinary moments, and when we see Him, we tell (write) about it.

Love is our motivation; intention, simply a tool to keep us moving forward.

When we begin to comprehend the magnitude of the love that the Creator has for us, and grasp our God-given mission (or calling, if you will), we set out on our writing journey with a simple, childlike desire to please our Abba. We write, first and most of all, for an audience of One. We come to the page filled with love, fuelled by prayer, and guided by the Spirit. Whether we pen fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, our writing becomes an outflowing of the love that has been poured into us.

The path won’t be a straight one, and it won’t look like anyone else’s. There will be detours, and potholes, and things that come up that distract us from our goal. Intention helps us stay on track, a tool we wield to help us do the work given us to do. We establish boundaries around our time with God and, flowing from that, establish regular writing times and places.

And so, as we begin this new year, I invite you to take time to abide, lean in and listen, and become saturated with God’s love. Then, only when you are filled, establish your goals and set your intentions.

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[1] Acts 26:16

Linda Hoye is a writer, photographer, gardener, and somewhat-fanatical grandma. She lives in British Columbia with her husband and their doted-upon Yorkshire Terrier, but she’ll always be a Saskatchewan prairie girl. She is the author of Two Hearts: An Adoptee’s Journey Through Grief to Gratitude. Her work has been included in two anthologies, as well as assorted online and in-print publications. She loves Moleskin notebooks, multi-coloured index cards and sticky notes, Uni-Ball 207 gel pens, and soy milky frothy coffee. Find her online at www.lindahoye.com where she ruminates about life and faith every day.