My 2020 Key Word Chose Me by Wendy L. Macdonald

In my December newsletter, I wrote about how I chose my key word for 2020. Actually, it chose me. And now that I’ve already begun focusing on it in both my journal writing, and in my poetry, I’ve realized it’s a healing word too.

You see, 2018 & 2019 brought me face to face with the ugly in others and me. I was forced to recognize that although I had forgiven stuff I suffered in childhood, I was withholding forgiveness for present pains inflicted upon my family and me.

Forgiveness is beautiful. It’s the opposite of hate—which is ugly.

My key word for 2020 is beauty.

Beauty brings me closer to God when I focus on it. No matter what’s happening to and around us, beauty may be found if we intentionally seek it.

When Jesus hung on the cross—blood dripping, flesh ripping—he was the most beautiful person who ever lived and died in the moment He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Oh, my goodness. We have been forgiven too much not to turn the other cheek too. How can we not choose to forgive our enemies when we’re only here for a short few years compared to an eternity with Jesus in heaven? No matter what wounds we’ve suffered in this life, the Lord has promised us that our in-the-moment-sufferings aren’t worthy to be compared with the beauty that’s coming.

Yes, beauty means focusing on what’s to come and thereby allowing the beauty of the Lord to break through the ugly stuff happening around us. No, it doesn’t mean standing still while someone tosses shovelfuls of manure in our face. It means we don’t toss it back. We forgive instead of retaliate; so, perhaps then, the coals of conviction may burn away the ugliness of hate to reveal Christ’s redeeming beauty: Love. 

And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
Isaiah 6:3 NIV

I’m nosy-to-know if you’ve recently noticed God’s beauty in the middle of the not-so-lovely?

Blessings of His beauty ~ Wendy Mac
     

My Main Incentives to Write by Wendy L. Macdonald

God’s nudges are my main incentives for showing up to write each day. My journal is my drawing board for most of my nonfiction writing. It’s where I record my faith journey—and my faith failings.   
One of my main incentives for writing is described in a verse I fell in love with while working through a Beth Moore Bible study. It encouraged me to write for a particular reader. Hints of what my brand should be have shown up at various times in my life, but this verse solidified it:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, 

because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

 to proclaim freedom for the captives

 and release from darkness for the prisoners.

 Isaiah 61:1 NIV

Each morning I choose a verse of the day from the passages of Scripture I’ve read. I don’t follow a strict reading plan. My simple read-through-the-Bible method is: Place a sticky note in the New and Old Testaments to mark where I’ve read to. Some mornings I read several chapters. Other mornings I may only read a few verses. On particularly stressful days, I skip my reading routine and dip into the Psalms for spiritual refreshment.

After choosing a verse, I record it in my journal and write a poem based on it. Later, if the poem is worthy to be shared, I edit it and schedule it and the Scripture verse on my author Facebook page with a nature picture I’ve taken. Often, an entire blog post or podcast is birthed from one of my verses of the day.

God’s Word is literally a lamp for my pen. When I show up and read it, His inspiration shows up too.

My heart is overflowing with a good theme: 

I recite my composition concerning the king;

 my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

 Psalm 45:1 NKJV

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

 because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

 and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free… 

Luke 4:18 NIV

I’m nosy-to-know what Scripture verse has been the most incentive in your writing life.

Blessings ~ Wendy Mac