“With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” This sentence from the poem Desiderata, written by Max Ehrmann (1872 - 1945), an American poet and lawyer, sums up the condition of the world as it was when this poem was penned in 1920 and as it is even today.
After God had formed all of creation, He looked at it and was pleased. Genesis 1:31 (NKJV) tells us; “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So, the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
When we travel, whether in our own country or another, we see much beauty. There are amazing country scenes to awe us, unique buildings, and many people with wonderful talents to meet. Indeed, it is very good. Unfortunately, we also see much ugliness; slums, abandoned buildings, ruined properties from wars, fires, and floods, garbage lying about in streets, and scrawny animals along with people searching through trash to find nourishment. And if we look closely at some people’s faces particularly their eyes, we’ll see sadness, despair, fear, and anger. The world to them is a terrifying and ugly place. Indeed, it is very bad.
So how can we, as writers, create beauty in a fallen world? One word comes to mind; encouragement. And Isaiah 1:17 & 18 also comes to mind; “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” And then the Lord says; “Come now, let us reason together.” (NIV) Imagine! God, who many people see as an angry, revengeful deity, who is blamed for all the chaos in the world, actually wants to speak to us; about many matters but especially about our lives and our relationship with Him. There is hope for all through Jesus Christ. To convey this message in a gentle way that will draw people to the Lord, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is always an excellent starting point before writing or typing any words.
There are many Bible verses which speak about encouragement. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV) “Encourage one another and build each other up…” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Yes, as writers, we can create beauty with encouraging words of hope and love. With the Holy Spirit’s help, lovely words will flow, and they will be good. Indeed, it will be very good.
ENCOURAGEMENT! Great post, Shirley.
ReplyDeleteEncouragement is such a beautiful aspect of writing. And yes, with the Holy Spirit's help, lovely words will flow and they will be good, very good. Love that line, Shirley.
ReplyDeleteYes, prayer is an excellent starting point! As an analytical kind of gal, I can skip that part. Thank you for the gentle reminder and encouragement.
ReplyDeleteEncouragement! Yes, Shirley, we do so need that. Encouraging words, thoughts, essays, plays, music, and poetry are what we need more of. Thanks for pointing out God’s fatherly invitation: “Come, now, let us reason together.”
ReplyDeleteWe need to do this in our legislative assemblies, in our schools, churches, families and in our writing. We need to invite one another to sit down and discuss things with logic and reason and love. We need to speak respectfully to one another and to listen and learn from each other. None of us has all the answers.
Thank you, Shirley, for sharing your thoughts on what to do to make our wonderful world run more smoothly. God has given us good minds and good tools to do his work.
This world is a temporary filling. God will destroy it and make a permanent one so much more beautiful and durable. The beauty we see now is just the commercial for God's forever creation.
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