Kindness in the Struggle by Alan Anderson

 

"And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so." Genesis 1:24 (ESV)

Oh, my word, I love the theme for this month! Our InScribe blog writers have exposed themselves once again as writers with a passionate call. Please accept the following as my contribution to our theme of kindness. I pray this post is worthy of your time, dear ones.

Kindness to God’s Little Creatures

I love spring. I’m not a big fan of winter, but spring and I are buddies. Heat from sun rays causes grass to grow, and the earth warms up to prepare for gardening and growth. With a more regular appearance of the sun, wasps, bees, birds and butterflies are among the creatures who add colour to nature.

A couple of years ago, when my wife and I arrived home from church, I found a sad sight. On our porch steps, I discovered the body of a little bird. From the looks of it, he must have flown into one of our porch windows and died. I imagined he began his day flying around and seeking something to eat. Now his end came, and his little broken body lay still. I carried him to my backyard, dug a hole in the lawn, and covered him with dirt. I performed an act of kindness to one of God’s precious little creatures.

Not too long ago, while in my workshop at home, I noticed a wasp crawling on the floor. He walked with a noticeable limp, with broken wings and struggled. I opened the workshop door to see if he might fly away, but his struggle continued. He couldn’t fly. My mind pondered, what does a wasp do if he can’t fly?

I watched the little creature struggle to fly, yet he failed again and again. Every effort for him to move showed his crippled attempt. I grabbed hold of one of my gardening trowels and allowed the wasp to climb on to the trowel. Once he did this, I took him outside and with all gentleness I placed him on to the grass. Like the little bird, the wasp’s life on this earth would be brief. I knew I couldn’t save this determined, beautiful example of God’s creation. I watched him for a few minutes, hoping he regained his ability to fly like his wasp brethren, but to no avail.

These little creatures, created by God, served a purpose. They reminded me of the importance of showing kindness only God may notice.

Through acts of kindness to God’s creatures, we might ponder how this relates to writers. What came to my mind is how some of our writing projects might go the way of the dead bird and the crippled wasp.

A Writer’s Struggle

How do you, dear writers, persevere with writing projects you struggle with? I know I am assuming you struggle with your writing from time to time. Please bear with me. How long do you nurture your writing pieces before you lay them aside when it seems they don’t come together?

What about those crumpled pages lying in a garbage can beside your desk or the stories where you hit the delete key? Those stories, poems, scripts, or books that started well, only to have them smashed against the wall of your mind. At what point did you reach where you decided the struggle was going nowhere?

I know this struggle. I am living the struggle right now. With a measure of crippled effort and stumbling, I laid aside a project I love. The time isn’t right. Like the wasp, this project has had its struggles. Unlike the bird, this project is not dead. I hope to breathe life back into it someday. For now, it rests. This is kindness to your words.

How about you, my friends? Are you in a struggle? Where are you in the struggle? Are your words tired? Perhaps you have laid your writing effort for now. Dear ones, you are not alone in your struggle. May God, the Lord who loves you, send kindness to you. May we be part of the kindness of God to each other.

Alan lives in a small village called Deroche, British Columbia, with his wife, Terry, and their poodle, Charlie. He enjoys walking on the dike near his home with trees all around and where he finds inspiration to write. He occasionally writes articles for FellowScript Magazine and is a regular contributor to the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship blog. Alan’s website and blog is https://scarredjoy.ca.