God Values Us and Our Writing by Sandi Somers

As I was mulling over the idea of what to write for our “V” theme, I woke up one morning with the thought that God is invested in us. He values us. He loves us. There was my topic, ready to be developed. 

I hadn’t grown up with the understanding of how much God loves us. I don’t remember a defining moment in those early years when I became overwhelmed with God’s love. But over time, this knowledge grew on me, especially when my friend Shirley told us that God loves us more than we can ever, ever dream or imagine. 

Later while reading through the book of Exodus, a thought jumped out at me in the most startling way. The Israelites, recently freed from Egypt, had crossed the most desolate desert imaginable, and God had been their provider and healer. Now they were camped near Mt. Sinai, where God was ready to teach them His laws. If they obeyed God, they would be His treasured possession—how much He loved them! (19:5). His treasured possession! How much He loved them! How much He loves us. How much He loves me!   

Then last November I heard a news item that became a metaphor for what we mean to God. On November 7, 2023, a vivid blue diamond sold to an anonymous buyer for a staggering $43.8 million (about $60 million Canadian) in Geneva, Switzerland. Named “Bleu Royal”, it is among the rarest and most valuable jewels in existence. 

I realized how much God treasures and values us more than the buyer valued that blue diamond. 

Not only does God treasure and love us, however. He values our writing and has invested Himself in us to produce the words on our pages.    

God has given us individual talents, individual ways to express His truths. I’m often reminded of Brenda Ueland, who in her book, If You Want to Write, maintained that each of us is creative and original. We have something important to say because we are creative, even when we spill out our scrambled jottings and as we risk exploring our vulnerabilities. All will contribute to our skill and future successes. 

But God intends our writing to go out beyond ourselves. He has intended that our writing should influence others for His Kingdom. How often I’ve heard authors say that their words have encouraged others, met a need at a pivotal moment, or given laughter to lighten heavy spirits. We enrich their lives. 

Which brings me full circle. As we enrich other lives with our writing, God enriches our lives with His love. Thoughts are sprinkled all through Scripture: 

•     “The Lord your God is with you…He will take great delight in you, He will quieten you with His love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).
•     “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).
•     “For you are a people, holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you…to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6). 

…and this verse makes a wonderful conclusion: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” (John 15:9).

  

Finding Kairos by Connie Inglis

When I first read the prompt for this month I felt like I had little to say other than, "Yes, without question, I feel God's pleasure when I write." End of blog post.

But the longer I pondered it, the more ideas the Spirit put in my head to the point that so many thoughts were spilling over that I wasn't sure how to connect them all. Isn't that so typical of the way God works? To first inspire us in some way, and then to ask us to WORK it out? To use the gifts and abilities He's given us to bring His inspiration to fruition? For me these are two sides of the same coin and do relate to the topic at hand. I believe we can feel His pleasure no matter if the coin is heads--His inspiration in our mind--or tails--getting our tails in gear and doing the work. (A little side note. The nickel grabbed my attention because of the beaver and the English idiom: busy as a beaver. I know, I'm quirky that way.)

The first idea that the Spirit gave me was this: Actually feeling His pleasure depends on me, on my emotional state. God's pleasure, on the other hand, does not depend on me, on us, because His pleasure in us NEVER changes. His delight in us, His love for us, is constant and unconditional. Zephaniah 3:17 says it so well (This is a picture of my granddaughter. She too delights in running):

The longer I think about this, the more overwhelmed I become at how out-of-this-world ineffable that truth really is. Which also means I can feel His pleasure in enjoyable times, like when I am writing, but also in painful times, in times of struggle. HIS pleasure is always waiting for me, wanting to be felt.

Then the Spirit reminded me of the beautiful word picture of this in Luke 15: the parable of the lost son. The father's love for, his delight in his lost son does not waver. Each day he goes out and watches and waits and when his son returns home, the father shows delight in his son, throws his arms around him and then throws him a party. The son feels his father's pleasure. How like our Father is this picture? We, like the son, and like Eric Liddell, can run to Him and for Him and feel His pleasure. It waits for us. (image is of Rembrandt's work, "The Return of the Prodigal Son.")

So, if God delights in me always, if He finds pleasure in me as His child, then I believe He truly desires that I seek and find that place where I am "feeling His pleasure" anytime--all the time. This is where the Spirit reminded me of what it means to be in kairos time in contrast to chronos time.

I was introduced to kairos vs chronos time a few years ago when I read Mark Buchanan's book, The Rest of God: Restoring your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. We are familiar with chronos i.e. chronological or sequential time that is measurable. Buchanan states that, "Chronos is the presiding deity of the driven." Kairos, on the other hand, has no English equivalent. Wikipedia defines it as, "a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens." Buchanan calls it, "the scent of eternity in our hearts," and Madeleine L'Engle in her book Walking on Water calls it, "Real time. God's time. That time which breaks through chronos with a shock of joy..." And then she says, "the artist at work is in kairos." I think Eric Liddell would have said that when he ran he was in kairos time. It is often when I am creating, whether with words or paints, that I sense God's delight, a taste of eternity--kairos time.

I hope this blog makes sense to you--that you get the connections I was trying to make. And that you are reminded once again of how much God loves you and delights in you and that His desire is for us to feel His pleasure often, whether we are running or writing or cleaning up kid messes or caring for a parent with dementia. And when we feel His pleasure we are given a little taste of eternity, we are in kairos time.