Good or Very Good by Sharon Heagy

 

      The garbage challenge. It happens whenever I travel. We only have two forms of garbage on the farm, burnable and non-burnable. But enter the big city and there is a bin for waste, a bin for recycling, a bin for compost, a bin for cans and bottles and the list goes on! But what goes where? I found myself at Fall Conference standing in the hallway staring at two bins, recycling and waste. As I looked at the depictions of what was to be put in each one, I found the items overlapped and I didn’t know where to put the Kleenex clutched in my palm. The other unknown factor was what I had done with the tissue before it ended up in my palm. Had I cleaned my glasses with it or had I blown my nose or had I used it at all? I couldn’t recall. It was just a waded lump in the pocket of my jeans and it was bugging me. Paper went in the recycle bin, but if I had used it to empty my honker didn’t that make it waste? I didn’t really want to smooth it out and determine whether it had been used or not so I finally decided to toss it into the container labelled waste with feigned nonchalance of knowing what I was doing. It felt a bit naughty, not knowing if I had broken some obscure garbage law, but I was too embarrassed to ask anyone and make a big deal out of where to throw one solitary tissue. Looking around to make sure no one was going to accuse me of a crime, I slid back into the conference room.

            By now many of you have heard or experienced first-hand how God changed the theme of Fall Conference from ‘Finding the Right Words’ to the title of the new InScribe anthology, Creativity and Chaos. Without going into detail about how things seemingly fell apart only to be put back together in a different way, let me say that it was a privilege to watch the InScribe leadership yield to God’s leading as they followed what Colleen McCubbin coined as Plan ‘G’ – God’s plan. 

            Had the conference gone off without a hitch, I am certain it would have been a good conference. The people in charge are people of excellence. But, watching the Spirit lead these wonderful folks, watching them follow after the heart of God, added a dimension that changed a good conference into a very good conference. 

            Genesis 1:31 tells of the completion of creation. “God saw all that He had made and it was very good. (Emphasis mine) Not just good, very good! When the Lord is involved a metamorphosis takes place that changes the ordinary into the extraordinary. Just as God turned Fall Conference from good to very good with the touch of His hand, He can, and will, do the same for our writing. Good writers are gifted. After hearing stories and reading parts of books written by InScribe authors at conference, I dare say they write well. Yet, as you peruse their pieces you will find some have written words that pierce your heart and soul and take your breath away. There is something about those words, a ‘je ne sais quoi,’ an undefined quality that goes above and beyond good words. An undefined quality? No. It is rather an anointing, the touch of God’s hand, that transforms good words into very good words. We notice the difference in these words as they stir the surface of our awareness or plunge to the depths of our being. They are very good words.

            May we all follow the Conference committee’s example and seek after God’s own heart and ask that He, in His grace and mercy, might turn words well written into extraordinary words. Let us not write without God’s hand upon our own.